By Raj, Sharma
The meeting started as usual with an introductions round with Gerard Davis, B’ham PIP member, co hosting the meeting with me this month!
Neil Bowler, a debt recovery specialist, was our first speaker and his presentation was all about how NOT to use his services.
Bad debts are a serious issue for businesses due to the state of the economy. Rising interest rates and cost of living have squeezed renters and many are defaulting. It’s crucial that rental agreements are water tight, lots of due diligence is done on tenants and compliant tenancies are set up to make debt recovery easier.
Next up was a Member’s Showcase by long term Birmingham PIP member Graham Durbin who continued part 2 of his presentation, “Around the world in 75 years!”
Graham is a very experienced investor with a wide range of investments and developments under his belt – both home and abroad.
There are many lessons to learn from our knowledgeable members – please let us know if you’d like to showcase your property journey and we’ll get you featured!
Peter Vandervennin provided a Bank of England update as well as latest mortgage news. The base rate had gone up by 25 basis points to 5.25% in the week, as expected, but better news on the inflation front had lowered swap rates.
This means fixed rate mortgages will come down if the trend continues, but in the meantime there is considerable pain for existing owners facing rate rises as their mortgages come off low fixed rates and for new buyers who now have affordability issues.
Peter suggested now may be the time for investors to make low offers and to see what gets accepted – a great opportunity.
That concluded the morning session and lunch was the perfect time to continue networking and to build those relationships!
A Deal Clinic before Round Tables!
For some time now, I’ve wanted to do a live deal clinic at our meeting where a member brings to the group a potential deal or a problem – and the group collectively come up with some solutions.
The first of our deal clinics didn’t disappoint!
Michael Verma, Birmingham member, has an existing commercial property that:
1/ He could sell – there is an offer from a developer for a serious 7 figure sum!
2/ He could develop himself, subject to planning and costs of around £400k
3/ Do nothing – enjoy the existing income and deploy the funds elsewhere.
A very interesting discussion followed. Quite a few members had good knowledge about the area and about current and future developments in the vicinity.
Several superb suggestions were made – developments were risky at the moment and the projected returns didn’t justify the spend. Also, it would be useful to see how neighbouring developments proceeded, this would set a precedent for planning. A larger development on site could be possible than what was being considered at the moment.
Michael concluded he would sit tight for now and perhaps evaluate the option to sell.
A superb session that offered real value to our member – all for the price of a monthly subscription!
Round Tables
Further networking and discussion continued at the round tables, hosted by Peter and Michael which took us to the end of another superb Birmingham meeting.
Looking forward to the 1st September meeting – which is our 6th Birthday Special! Members can bring a friend to celebrate with us – more news on that in the course of the next couple of weeks!
