In Episode 103 of Expat Property Story, a property podcast for Expats investing in UK Property, I have a great conversation with Sam Cooke, who runs digital marketing agency We Are Property Marketing.

One of the things we talked about was Chat GPT (other AI platforms are out there!)

Sam is also head honcho at Blue Bricks a magazine focusing on UK property.

In the July / August 2023 issue, he interviewed Mike Taylor, co-founder of Ladder IO, a marketing agency using technology and data to grow their clients’ businesses.

Sam asked Mike for his advice on the wisdom of copywriters using Chat GPT to write their articles.

“His advice was basically to ask Chat GPT to interview you. So if you want to write a blog, just say, Chat GPT, can you interview me on this subject? And can you ask me these questions?”

So being the time poor full-time employed expat UK property investor that I am, I took this one step further and asked Chat GPT to write the questions as well!

All I did was type in the following prompt:

“Interview me about being an expat UK property investor”.

I know, I should say please, or ‘Hey, Chat GPT…’ but… it’s ok to forget your manners with AI Platforms cos they don’t have any feelings.

So here are the questions that Chat GPT came up with for me:

The Interview…

1.   Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your background as an expat UK property investor?

My wife and I moved to Hong Kong after renting out our London flat in the summer of 2006 around about the time Zidane headbutted the Italian guy in the World Cup Final.

For the first few years, we saved hard, accumulated a sum of cash and went to see an ‘Independent Financial Adviser’ who set up a pension plan of stocks and shares in 2009.

At first, the plan did well, as we bought the stocks and shares when the stock market was recovering from the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.

After a few years, profits soon stalled. Meanwhile our London flat saw huge capital growth. Hong Kong property also shot up in value. Eventually we ditched our financial adviser, cashed in a large proportion of our stocks and shares and bought a tiny one-bed apartment in Hong Kong off-plan in 2015.

In the two years it took for the Hong Kong flat to be built, it had increased in value from £400,000 to £600,000.

We had caught the property bug.

We started to look at the UK property market. After educating ourselves (for free via podcasts, books and forums) and a few false starts, in 2018, we remortgaged the family home, cashed in more of the stocks and shares and bought 3 bed house in Nottingham with cash.

We developed the house into a 5-bed student HMO before remortgaging and doing it all again the following year.

The year after that, we sold the Hong Kong property, raised £100,000 in private finance and bought / developed three more student HMOs during the first Covid lockdown.

We then decided to add some diversity to our portfolio and looked to buy houses for Serviced Accommodation, but which could be re-purposed as single lets as an alternative exit.

By now the post-Covid market was hot and we couldn’t find a deal. Our network was too small, and our education somewhat lacking.

So I started my podcast.

Still we couldn’t find a deal. Impostor Syndrome set in so to kick-start our portfolio, I set myself a four-month challenge to buy a UK property at auction without leaving Hong Kong. The full story was documented in Season Two.

With two weeks to spare, we bought a block of four one-bed flats in a market town in Derbyshire.

Not long after, Liz Truss (remember her) orchestrated the KamiKwasi Budget, which spooked the market and provided a buying opportunity. We got our hands on a couple of 3-bed semis at deep discount that were perfect for Serviced Accommodation. 

We were only able to bag these properties by being speedy and decisive when it mattered, thanks in no small part to the power team of experts we had assembled around us. Full story here.

When mortgaging the block of flats in Derbyshire (which we had bought with cash), the lender flagged up two missed payments on my credit file, which took nearly five months to remove. Full story here.

Which brings us up to today. We have big plans moving forwards, which we’re not quite ready to reveal yet, so watch this space!

2.   What motivated you to invest in UK property as an expat? Were there any specific factors that attracted you to the UK real estate market

With almost everything in life, you should start with the end in mind. So as an expat, one of the very first questions you must ask yourself is where you see yourself living in retirement.

For us, it’s the UK, so it makes sense to build our portfolio there for many reasons, the two most important being:

    I.         If we owned property outside the UK, we would be exposed to currency risks out of our control.

   II.         Legislation and tax could change in the jurisdictions where our property might be.

Also, the UK property market is one of the best in the world for investors given basic rules of supply and demand: the government repeatedly under-delivers on its  target of building 300,000 new homes per year to keep up with a rising population.

And UK population increases don’t look like easing up any time soon given that English has become the ‘lingua franca’ of the world.

In short, Happy Days!

3.   Were there any challenges or obstacles you had to overcome? How did you navigate the process of investing in UK property as an expat?

Yes. Loads of challenges. But none that seemed insurmountable. The main ones revolved around making a plan, finding people to work with in the UK and mortgages. The pool of lenders available to expats is much smaller than for UK based property investors.

How did we navigate these problems? Self-education via podcasts and forums, due diligence and gut instinct around the people we thought about working with and a very good mortgage broker used to dealing with expats. 

Building a network is incredibly important, though funnily enough, this is a relatively recent thing for us.

 

4.   What strategies have you used to identify profitable investment opportunities in the UK property market?

Hey, Chat GPT, if you were listening to my answers to the above questions, you wouldn’t ask that question unless you were a bad interviewer!

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and try to expand on my answer. I used podcasts, books and forums. Later I tried to expand my network. We have recently started meetups in Hong Kong and listeners in Singapore and Dubai have also started monthly gatherings to talk about UK property investment opportunities.

Property communities are definitely the way to go in 2023. For me, the main benefit of the Property Education / Training companies was the networking element. Nowadays you can get that without forking out 30K for the priviledge.

 

5.   Are there any particular regions or cities in the UK that you find particularly attractive for property investment? If so, what factors make those areas appealing?

 

Good question Chat GPT! You’re getting better at this!

There are several factors affecting your decision about where to invest:

·      Your overall objectives. What are you trying to do? Replace your income, provide a pension, create a legacy? Do you need cashflow or are you looking for capital growth over a longer period.

·      How much time do you have? This may influence your choices. Do you know the area you’re thinking of investing in? Do you have ‘boots on the ground in a particular area?

·      What is your attitude and appetite for risk? This should definitely affect your decisions. Do you want to lower your risk by investing in multiple locations. In a correction, some areas will suffer more than others.

However, once you have thought about the above factors, the three main things you should look for are areas with a significant (and, for capital growth, a growing) population, good employment opportunities and a healthy infrastructure. Throw in some regeneration and you’re good to go!

 

6.   What are some of the benefits and potential risks associated with being an expat UK property investor?

 

Another good question Chat GPT. I’m going bullet points for this one!

Benefits:

·      Because we’re often thousands of miles away from our properties, we are almost programmed from the start to make our investments as passive as possible. The temptation to micro-manage is pretty much removed.

·      Many expats have higher salaries and lower taxes.

·      It could be argued that we have a bigger appetite for risk, having left the comforts and security of the motherland!

·      Property is a people business. Expats interact with a greater variety of people than those who stay close to home. Could this be an advantage or am I clutching at straws now?

Risks

·      Mortgages: fewer lenders, higher interest rates, difficulty in maintaining a UK footprint.

·      Higher SDLT

·      Currency exposure

·      Trust: more difficult to keep your eye on things from faraway

·      The ‘Expat Tax’. He’s in Hong Kong… we’ll bung an extra 10K on the refurb

·      Sourcing property.

·      Face to face networking with potential UK based property partners

 

7.   How do you manage your UK property investments while residing abroad? Do you have a team of professionals in place to help you with property management?

 

YES! Possibly the most important element of all. In fact, going back to Question 5, it could be argued that your chosen area might best be determined by where the people you trust most are located.

 

8.   Can you share any success stories or notable experiences from your story as an expat UK property investor?

I have changed some of the words in this question as Chat GPT used the dreaded J word, which I can’t bring myself to use. I’m ridiculously proud of the fact that I have produced over a hundred episodes of Expat Property Story without suing the J word ONCE!

To answer the question, we proceeded to exchange on a property just six business hours after being presented with it not long after the disastrous mini-budget I talked about above. We then did the same the next day and made a paper profit of 126K in two days. Full story here.

9.   What advice would you give to other expats who are interested in investing in UK property?

 

A nice easy one, Chat GPT! I would advise expats to:

·      Follow / subscribe to Expat Property Story to learn from our mistakes our successes and from my amazing guests.

·      Join our mailing list to receive our monthly newsletter to keep abreast of everything relating to UK property investment. As Danny Inman said in Episode 71: “The UK property market is a dangerous place to be uninformed.”

·      Follow the podcast on Instagram: @expat_property_story 

I would also advise against spending 30K on a property training course.

 

10.                 Finally, how do you see the future of the UK property market and what opportunities or challenges do you anticipate for expat investors?

 

Another great question, Chat GPT… you have redeemed yourself after Question 4!

The doom & gloom merchants in the mainstream press point to swathes of UK landlords looking to leave the UK property market, which is probably true, but that doesn’t mean it’s less attractive… it’s just less attractive to them!

Did you ever start a new job and wonder why some of your new colleagues were so unhappy with things that you didn’t thing were a big deal, only to find yourself outraged over some small change once you were safely ensconced in your role a couple of years down the track?

Humans hate change!

And there’s been lots of change in the UK buy-to-let market over the last ten years. I recently heard Vanessa Warwick of Property Tribes (I forgot to mention we are sponsors of the Expat Tribe…) saying that there are now 168 different regulations that landlords need to comply with!

No wonder some people suggest that the days of the part-time landlord are over…

But as Uncle Buffet says, ‘Observe the masses and do the opposite.’

Or, ‘Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.’

Now is the time to be greedy. Keep buying and let the miracle of compound interest take care of everything else.

The last words should go to my favourite quote from 103 episodes of Expat Property Story, from Rod Turner in Episode 42, during the Auction Season:

“My advice is: do! Don’t talk. Just do. And perform. And then people will start to think, ‘Actually, this person is someone that does what they say they’re going to do. And I know they can perform.’

And I think that's so so important. People will just get so fed up with getting calls from people that don't perform. They're just going to feel this is a massive waste of time.  Start buying stuff. Just get on with it!”