In Tavistock, Devon, ex-carpenter Colin Rodgers and wife Jenny have done very well out of the rising property market in the last nine years. They’ve built up a portfolio of eight buy to lets across the UK.
But now the housing market has turned and they’re risking it all for a grade two listed Victorian railway station, which has been left to crumble back into the edges of Dartmoor for the past 40 years.
For Colin and Jenny this enormous restoration project also marks the start of a whole new chapter. Tired of the daily grind, they’re hoping that once converted the old railway will provide them with a brand new business they can do together – running a top end holiday rentals business. The fact that they’ve never done it before and don’t know the area isn’t going to take the edge off their aspiration.
They're drawing on their own experiences of holidays and time-shares - not the most comprehensive research, especially when it’s good value family lets that are in demand in Tavistock - and not top end luxury.
Sarah's worried that Colin and Jenny think managing a few buy to lets is the same as running and launching a brand new holiday business in a very competitive part of the UK. This is a completely different ball game. They bought the railway station for £325,000 and have a budget of £290,000. They’re estimating an annual revenue of a stratospheric £140,000 a year, which would make them a 22 per cent return on their investment - over three times the industry average.
Colin and Jenny have fallen in love with the old railway station and Sarah's worried that haven't thought through how it stacks up as a new business venture. With 150,000 holiday lets in the UK, and 8000 in Devon alone, competition is rife. The station needs to be top class to demand top prices, but with its tricky rooms and being overlooked by housing at the back, it’s less than ideal. Of the 38,000 holidaymakers visiting Tavistock each year, most are either families or retired, and they’ll spend on average £954 a week on a holiday let.
At least their conversion plan makes sense. They’re going to split the building into three separate units, one with three bedrooms and two with two bedrooms.
So far so good, but there’s a problem with all three properties, and especially the middle property: the lack of any decent living space. Upstairs is OK, where a mezzanine floor will have a good size bedroom and bathroom. But downstairs is a real squeeze, with a second bedroom and bathroom, tiny kitchen and cramped living room. To the rear, under the platform canopy, all three lets will have an area with no real use overlooked by the estate next door, and without a single view.
With our unpredictable weather, internal living space is vital for UK holiday accommodation and, with the council on side, this old platform would provide a fantastic kitchen diner for each unit, as well as leaving room to get an extra bedroom in the two two bedroom units. To solve the problem of outside space, Sarah suggests going to the front of the station and giving each let its own private garden where guests can enjoy the views.
Along with good living space, it’s bedrooms that generate income in holiday lets. The three bed layout works, but Colin and Jenny are missing another trick with the two beds. They could easily fit another bedroom on the mezzanine floor, giving the accommodation a much more profitable layout. Even with all these ideas together, it’s not going to generate Colin and Jenny’s fantasy £1700 a week - but it might nudge them nearer the £1300 a week average.
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