As part of our campaign highlighting how landlords have upgraded the standards of privately rented property, we talk to Adrian Mason, a landlord who puts standards at the heart of his business.

Download our report, Raising the standards of privately rented property, to read more about how landlords have driven improvements.

Adrian Mason has just added the twentieth property to his growing rental portfolio in the Derbyshire town of Chesterfield. Starting in 2005, it’s a journey that has seen Adrian give up his career as a managing director three years ago to focus his attention on his burgeoning property business.

“I started by accident really,” he explains. “We’d sold the matrimonial home and the house we were buying fell through, so we went into rented and invested the equity in a buy-to-let property. That did well, so we remortgaged and purchased another. It grew from there really.”

Adrian now has two businesses focused on the rental market; his own portfolio (largely held with a Limited Company) and AD Property Maintenance, which provides maintenance services to letting agents on behalf of landlord clients. It’s also a family business as both of his sons – aged 20 and 22 - work for the company.

Good quality home

At the heart of both businesses is a desire to provide tenants with a good quality home. With regards to his own portfolio, Adrian looks to add property that he can upgrade and see an immediate gain on the capital value of the property.

He says: “My business model is built around capital gain, rather than income or using the properties for cashflow; it’s a long-term investment and hold. We typically look to buy a property in need of improvement and then make all of the necessary adaptations to bring it up to scratch to provide a good home for our tenants.

“Upgrading property is key to our business. Each property is different but we’ll look at the fabric of the building, not just cosmetic changes. That could mean adding new insulation, a better boiler, upgraded windows; whatever the property needs. It typically takes two to three months of work after purchase to get the property up to scratch and we would expect to see an immediate increase of around 20% on the capital and investment.”

Adrian likes to build long-term relationships with his tenants and all of his properties are fully managed through favoured lettings agents. His longest tenant has been with him since 2007.

“I tell my boys that you have hit gold if you have a long-term tenant. They take a greater interest in looking after the property, they pay rent on time and it’s just generally a better relationship. I make sure that I look after my tenants and won’t enforce extortionate rent increases on them. I’d prefer to have a happy and stable tenancy than try to gain a few extra pounds.”

Energy efficiency

Energy efficiency is of growing importance for Adrian and his businesses. The Government has proposed that all new tenancies must have an EPC-rating of C from 2025, with all tenancies from 2028, although there has been no update since the proposals were made more than two years ago. Adrian believes the Government should encourage Limited Company landlords to make energy upgrades to property through tax reliefs, but is already adapting his business model.

“Energy efficiency is clearly something the Government is looking at, whether that be from 2025 or later. It’s also of growing importance to tenants given the increases in energy bills this winter.”

He adds: “We certainly look to improve the energy performance of the properties we acquire, plus I think it could be an opportunity for the property maintenance business. We can work with a landlord to scope how much it would cost to make their property compliant and then undertake the work required.”

Looking to the future, Adrian is keen on expanding both sides of his business. “Demand for rental property is only going to grow,” he says. “We are seeing demand from all types of tenants; our focus is providing a good quality property for them to call home.”

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