#BizUpdate: Recent Challenges & Why I'm Preparing To Buy

Okay, welcome back.

So as always in my business updates, this is my opportunity to keep it real with you guys because I'm not just here recording podcasts and talking about investing in property.

I am actually out there on the front line doing this every single day and I have been for nearly 20 years now.

These episodes, as I've said many times, are my opportunity to... keep it real with you guys, to level with you guys, to be super honest about it with you, this investment journey that we're all on, but also it holds me to account and it helps me quietly reflect on my business and the decisions that I've been making, some of them which have gone well and some of them which haven't and don't go well.

So I do enjoy these episodes and I do hope that you found them useful.

I hope that you find these kind of honest breakdowns.

I just hope you're able to find some resonance and relevance in there.

I also hope it just kind of helps motivate you and keep you moving forwards when I know things can be tough.

And it is pretty tough out there at the minute.

It's a really, really tricky market for so many reasons.

We've got Sticky interest rates.

We've got stuff going on elsewhere in the world that we have absolutely no control and power over.

We've got a property market that is flat, possibly a little bit soft, but there's not tons of stock on the market at the minute.

It's really difficult to know whether we should go hard and put our foot down or maybe go slow and be a bit more cautious.

We've got in some parts of the country rent softening a little bit.

We've got, as you're about to find out today, some challenges with tenants and affordability and creeping costs in our rental businesses.

We've also had the new legislation, the Renters' Rights Act, now come into force and all of this jazz.

So there's a lot going on.

So if you have been finding it difficult, if you are struggling to find your way forwards, don't worry.

It's totally normal.

And I think if you were feeling any different... about you.

Now today, as always, what I'm going to do is break down what's been going on in my businesses recently across the different areas, across my trading businesses, my portfolio, and also the development business as well.

And then just share my thoughts on the outlook for the rest of the year.

So a few things to kind of bring you up to speed on with today and in no particular order.