This was our latest refurbishment on my first ever flat I bought in West London about 5 years ago. It was looking tired and needed a bit of a face lift, so over 4 weeks at the beginning of the year when our tenant left we decided to get it ready for the upcoming spring / summer market where we could get a better rent on it.

We did a full refurb on it, replacing the kitchen and bathroom, all the flooring and carpet, lighting, heating and a nice fresh coat of paint!

My favourite part was finding the exposed brick wall in the living room, in our first project we added brick slats to the wall to create the same effect but it was costly and time consuming. In this property it just needed exposing, re-pointing and cleaning!

I wear many hats in the industry being a property finder and relocation agent as well as a developer and investment landlord but I do love a good project, my partner and I are always on the look out for more! What can I say, I eat, sleep and breathe property! You can find out more about my roles and other projects here.

If you have an investment property and you are looking to update it, here are my top tips:

1. Do the works in winter when you are losing the least amount of rental income and the property will be ready for the better spring and summer markets getting you the most rent and hopefully least time on the market – 1 and 2 bedroom modernised properties go like hotcakes in the London summer months, particularly when the students come over ready for September!
2. Be Ready! We did this a bit spur of the moment so it was lucky our builder could squeeze this project in alongisde his other work. Make sure you have who you need on hand for the time frame you require them.
3. Dress the property – By just spending just a couple of hundred pounds in IKEA, Dunelm Mill, Wayfair and HomeBase on little ornaments, books, some crockery to lay out on the table and kitchen top, bed sheets, pictures, mirrors etc it gives the place a really homey feel and can help prospective tenants imagine living there. We now have a box of goodies that we keep in storage ready for any new developments and we just take them from property to property!

Here’s a video of the project:

Send me some links to your refurbishments, I love to gather some inspo for the next projects!

Lexie
xxx