Platinum Property Partners
“Now is actually a great time to buy, so my message to anyone serious is – don’t wait!”
p Sejal and Amit Vara
adjusts, but is that a good enough reason to press pause on your business plans? In some industries, the conclusion may be yes, but in the property sector, the answer is most definitely a no.
Deal or no deal, there’s never a bad time to invest in property Whether you believe investing in property can give you a sustainable and profitable business will largely depend on some key factors – including what newspapers you read or who you listen to. It’s true that many property investors learned the hard way following the financial crisis of 2008. When prices dropped, owner-occupiers, landlords and developers alike realised that they were too highly geared and capital growth was no longer a profitable strategy. Professional investors, on the other hand, who had stress-tested their property businesses and focused on a longer-term strategy, were able to weather the storm. This was certainly the case for Platinum Property Partners (PPP), a franchise launched in 2007. By the time the economic crash was in full swing, they had more than 35 Franchise Partners making a significant income from their specialist buy-to-let businesses. In some cases, the value of the properties they had purchased and refurbished had decreased,
but this was short term and not as significant as previously predicted. All PPP Franchise Partners continued to succeed – even throughout the house price 'crash'. Today, house price activity has slowed slightly, as homeowners put off moving and some landlords put off buying. Nevertheless, prices are still rising in most regions (with the exception of London), mortgage interest rates remain low and tenant demand continues to significantly outweigh supply. For professional investors and those who are serious about building a meaningful property business that can withstand the test of time, this current market presents a number of opportunities now, and post-Brexit.
“Don’t wait – now is as good a time as any”
In early 2017, Sejal and Amit Vara started thinking seriously about how they could sustain their lifestyle without working the way they currently did. Amit was, and still is, an accountant for a financial services firm; Sejal had moved from managing international media sales for a television broadcaster to a part-time sales role in a health publishing company, which gave her more time to spend with their young children.
Sejal and Amit already had a taste of how investing time and money in the right
business could provide fairly hands-off returns in the long term and now they wanted a business of their own that would offer the same. Sejal says: “We looked at several businesses, including a restaurant, but we’d need to work in the business every day and there was a risk it wouldn’t work out in the current climate. “We also considered investing in buy-to- lets, but the returns weren’t great unless you held out for capital growth. Then Amit remembered he’d listened to somebody from PPP talk at a franchise exhibition some years before, and he got in touch.” After attending a Discovery Day, they
felt PPP was not only a reputable and trustworthy company, but also one that had a proven track record of minimising the risks and maximising both the financial and lifestyle rewards of investing in property. Living in North London, they were slightly concerned about finding affordable properties, but with the help of PPP purchase mentors, they were able to find a suitable location just 30 minutes from where they lived.
Sejal adds: “House prices were and still
are slowly rising in our area, despite news reports saying they were going to drop. We had to put that to the back of our minds, however, and concentrate on the fact that this wasn’t a business model that relied on capital growth. We would hold on to
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