HMO Conversion
North of England
From a tired 3-bed house to a 7-bedroom HMO
Project at a glance
Strategy
HMO conversion for an investor
Location
North of England
Bought for
£85,000
Bedrooms
3 → 7
Works
Strip-out, new roof, loft dormer, rear extension
Planning
Permitted development, building control sign-off
Handover
Fully furnished
Service
Sourcing to keys, done for the investor
The starting point
The house hadn’t been renovated in a long time. It had been an elderly person’s home, with damp everywhere and serious structural issues. Ang and Goku bought it for an investor for £85,000, a solid price for the area, and saw what most buyers missed: room to add value.
The plan: add as many good rooms as possible
Their renovation strategy is simple: maximise value by fitting in the most rooms the house allows. Houses like this rarely have enough headroom in the loft, so after working it through with their builders they took a bold step.
They took the house back to its four walls. Even the roof came off and was replaced. That gave them a blank canvas: new ceilings at lower heights, a loft that could take two full bedrooms, and a layout planned from scratch rather than patched.
Room by room
Ground floor. One of the two reception rooms was split with a stud wall and became a bedroom, complete with a bay window, a rare selling point in an HMO.
First floor. An oversized old bathroom and a box room were reworked into better-sized bedrooms and a large main shower room for the lower-floor tenants. The rooms have big windows, so they stay bright and airy.
The loft. A dog-leg dormer created two loft bedrooms with their own compact shower room and built-in cupboards, almost like a two-bedroom flat. The biggest room in the house, with dormer windows on two sides, is Rahim’s favourite. The letting agent expects it to earn about £10 a week more than the others.
Kitchen. The old kitchen was small and had an awkward step down. Rather than an L-shaped extension, the team extended across the back with an RSJ and a skylight to create one wide, open kitchen, dining and living space.
Designed around the tenant
With the architect, the team positioned the bed, TV, desk and wardrobe in every room before anything was built. The details show:
- A TV point and wired ethernet for the desk in every bedroom
- Slim, space-saving radiators that give the rooms a premium feel
- No carpet anywhere, including the stairs, so floors last and are easy to clean
- Colours matched throughout, down to the sealant around the windows
- A varnished exposed-brick feature wall in the hallway. Tenants often view five or six HMOs a day, and this makes the house the one they remember.
Built to be signed off
The dormer was built under permitted development, with the council notified before work began. On every project, an independent building-control inspector checks the builders’ work, from the steels in the dormer to the drainage, and won’t sign off until he’s satisfied. Without that sign-off, the investor couldn’t remortgage or sell.
From student to done-for-you service
Ang and Goku started out sourcing deals. Then they asked: why stop at finding the property? They now take investors through the full journey: sourcing and negotiating the purchase, managing the build, furnishing, letting and handing over the keys, ready to keep or sell.
It suits investors who can’t be on site, such as people based in London four hours away, or busy doctors, pharmacists and accountants. Every investor is updated the way they prefer. The team keeps an Excel programme of works covering every step from purchase and legals to drawings and the build, and sends PDF photo reports with weekly or fortnightly calls.
Builders are paid by milestone. Each stage is agreed up front, photographed when complete and sent to the investor before funds are released. Along the way, the team explains the numbers so investors understand what a project like this really takes.
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