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Sarah & Andrew started out from humble beginnings. Whilst always being told to “save a house deposit”, they didn’t really have any real financial knowledge and building a global property portfolio was definitely not on the radar right after the 2008 crash. 

 

It started with one...

 

Andrew was able to scrape together enough for a deposit & bought his own unit from his savings as an electrical apprentice. He then met Sarah at University and over their last year at Uni, they became “weekend warriors” renovating the unit from peachy apricot to then ‘faint gold magnolia’. Looking back, it was probably the worse design decision they ever made!

 

But then there was a book….

 

Sarah was then inspired to jump onto the property ladder after reading a book recommended by Andrew’s Uncle called "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. Seeing that it was indeed possible to buy property at a young age, she bought her first unit a few streets away from Andrew’s place with her savings from her graduate accounting job at Unilever. This property was on Alt Street - the first buy to let and would ultimately the inspiration for the property investment company it is today. 

 

Fast forward to Melbourne….

 

Over the course of the next few years, they moved to Melbourne, Australia for work. They well and truly had the renovation bug and bought a further 4 properties and either added them to the property portfolio or sold them for a profit. 

 

Then….there was an opportunity

 

2016 was a milestone year which saw Sarah & Andrew take up a new job opportunity in the UK. 

They brought over their beaglier from Australia and began to look for a place to rent to determine which area would be right for them before making a more permanent decision. 

 

Little did they know, pet friendly accommodation were few and far between and knocked out 95% of the local rental market. The properties that were pet friendly were either wildly expensive, or in not very good condition. This personal experience made them want to make a change. 

 

Very quickly they determined that renting was going to be as short an experience as possible and they decided start their UK property journey from scratch using the funds from their Melbourne flips. But first - go back to homeownership!
 

Next step….

 

Given their previous (not so great) rental experience, Sarah and Andrew decided they would invest in accommodation catered for people like themselves and decided to appeal to young families with pets. A clean, functional, nicely decorated house at market rates that weren’t over inflated. They then added 2 of these properties to the portfolio over the next 2 years. 

 

Expanding the horizons

 

2018 was another milestone year. It then got them thinking about how to create a better balance between income and building a long term asset base. After some research, they came across the concept of shared living / HMOs. This was a foreign concept to them, as they originally thought HMOs were half way houses for ex criminals or social housing for people with disabilities! Clearly, it wasn’t and Sarah went on a few property courses to further her knowledge in this area. October 2019 saw the first HMO added to the Alt Street portfolio. 

 

Since then, they have gone on to create a small portfolio of boutique, design-led, co-living houses for young professionals in Northampton and have continued to grow this sector of the business. 

 

So what does the future hold…

 

Alt Street has grown into a sizeable business and now scaling faster than ever before. Sarah and Andrew now work with Investors to help them grow their savings & investment pots whilst undertaking the next property project.