Case study · Northumberland

Hideaway, start to finish

Bought, refurbished, let nightly for two and a half years, and sold. The only one of my properties that has been all the way round the cycle, and the one that taught me the most.

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The breakdown

What it cost, and what it returned

A terraced house in Northumberland, bought in poor condition and run as a holiday let for two and a half years before I sold it. These are the actual figures.

£130,000

Purchase price

£20,000

Refurbishment and furniture

£150,000

In, before buying costs

£153,000

Sold for

2.5 years

Held and trading

£2,500–4,000

Booking revenue a month

The asking price was £145,000. I paid £130,000. Without that £15,000 this would have been a loss rather than a flat sale.

The capital came back roughly as it went in. Hideaway made its money every month it was open, not on the day it sold.

Once stamp duty, legal fees and selling costs come off, the gap between £150,000 in and £153,000 out is close to nothing. If I had bought this to flip it, it would have been a poor deal. I did not. I bought it to run, and for two and a half years it paid.

How it traded

£2,500–4,000

Revenue a month

£1,358

Fixed costs a month

Nil

Council tax

Fixed costs are cleaning at £600, the mortgage at £564, utilities at £112, water at £42, internet at £25 and the TV licence at £15.45. Platform fees come out of the booking revenue on top of those. That leaves roughly £1,140 to £2,640 a month before platform fees, so somewhere between £34,000 and £78,000 across the two and a half years depending on how the seasons fell.

It paid no council tax. As a holiday let it moved onto business rates, and small business relief took it to nothing. That is a difference between the two that most people looking at this market have never been told about.

So why sell something that was working?

Because it was in our personal names, and because the capital was stuck. Two and a half years of good income, and the money that bought it was still sitting in the bricks. Hideaway and Cosy Nook were my last two assets held personally, and both are going for the same reason: everything from here is bought through the company and refinanced, so the capital comes back out and buys the next one. Durham Muse is what that looks like when it works.

Living room

The living room at Hideaway before the refurbishment, bare with a black fireplace

Before

The living room after refurbishment, with a blue wall and a red sofa

After

The fireplace was already there. It just needed a room built around it.

Kitchen

The kitchen at Hideaway before the refurbishment, with grey units

Before

The kitchen after refurbishment, with navy units, copper handles and patterned tiles

After

Navy units, copper handles, oak worktop and a tiled floor.

Bathroom

The bathroom at Hideaway before the refurbishment, plain white

Before

The bathroom after refurbishment, tiled in deep red

After

The one room where I spent on something people photograph.

Stairs

The staircase at Hideaway before the refurbishment, plain white walls

Before

The staircase after refurbishment, papered in a dark floral print

After

Wallpaper on one wall. Cheapest thing in the house and the most remarked on.
The living room at Hideaway, with a blue feature wall and a red sofa The living room at Hideaway looking towards the stairs The navy kitchen at Hideaway with copper handles and patterned floor tiles The dining room at Hideaway with a terracotta wall The dining room at Hideaway looking through to the kitchen The bathroom at Hideaway with red tiles The twin bedroom at Hideaway A bedroom at Hideaway with a green headboard and mustard wall The single bedroom at Hideaway with a terracotta alcove The front door at Hideaway with its slate name plate

These are the figures for one property I owned and have since sold. They are not a forecast or an offer. Property values can fall as well as rise, and every project is different.