PROGRESS UPDATE ON OUR SHOP AND UPPERS

This week Chris and I did a site visit to see and discuss progress with the flats being built above our shop. 

It has been a few months since my last visit so it was great to see the progress. 

Shops with upper parts are frequently discussed in the investor community so we thought it might be insightful to share the progress of one we are doing now. This is a nice little example as it started out as one commercial building of a shop with first floor storage space, and we are converting the uppers into 2 flats. 

I’ve recorded a video to show the uppers mid-build to provide some visual context [excuse the poor videography 😊] and below are a few points to share our rationale and approach to this one.

*What informed the search in the first place? Without a search criteria you can very quickly become overwhelmed in the sea of rightmove and similar websites, searching for something that ‘looks cheap’.

*It was building relationships with a handful of commercial agents that gave us enough understanding of which commercial clients were looking for space where, and what size.

*With a few strategic conversations and meetings we were able to define a search criteria.

*It was the Specsavers criteria that led us to find this property and even though they had changed their mind when we pitched it, our initial diligence gave us multiple options with this property, and that’s what gave us the confidence to proceed.

*After viewing we found out 3 local businesses had expressed an interest to the selling agent to let the building, and if the large space didn’t let we had understood there was a big demand for workshop space which could have been created with the rear section, leaving a smaller retail front to let.

*We developed a relationship with one of these local businesses and worked with them to agree a shop layout – we upgraded it to suit his long term vision for a bakery with retail shop and cafe at the front and storage and distribution at the rear. 

*On viewing, the upper parts lent themselves very logically to create a spacious 2 bedroom apartment, and when we discovered the height of the attic space there was definitely enough to create a 1 bedroom apartment up there. So, if we’d wanted there would be an option to sell the resi and keep the commercial for no money left in. However we are choosing to keep both as long term income producing assets. 

So that’s a brief update from one of our projects. What kind of projects are you working on at the moment?