Let’s talk about the “property investing” scene right now. You’ve probably seen it: the courses, the gurus, the YouTube ads. They all hype the same game plan:
“Buy cheap houses. Turn them into HMOs (houses of multiple occupation) or fancy short-term rentals. Sit back. Collect ‘passive income’. Live on a beach.”
Sounds dreamy. Except… it’s mostly BS.
Here’s how they actually sell it: buy a place below market value (BMV if you want to sound like a pro). Rent it out to multiple tenants or Airbnb it. The idea is to crank up cash flow until you replace your 9–5.
But let’s be real:
- Managing a bunch of tenants is not
- The margins are so thin that “outsourcing everything” is a fantasy.
You’ll be on the hook for leaky roofs, broken boilers, tenants who ghost on rent, endless admin—and the numbers often don’t even stack up before those headaches.
Oh, and let’s talk about debt.
These strategies rely on piling it on. You keep borrowing to buy more properties, becoming highly leveraged. That’s fine when the market is rising and interest rates are low. But the second things turn, your beautiful “passive income” gets wiped out faster than you can say “rate hike.”
Here’s an example:
£80,000 of debt to get £250/month “cashflow.”
One tiny bump in interest rates or rents falling a bit? That £250 vanishes. Add a big repair bill and you’re paying for the privilege of being a landlord.
Meanwhile, the big payoff everyone hopes for—capital appreciation—could take 20 years. That’s two decades of worrying about debt, repairs, and regulations while hoping property prices bail you out.
And let’s not ignore that landlords are in the government’s crosshairs. More red tape. Higher taxes. Fewer incentives. The past 25 years were a landlord’s dream. The next 25? Not so much.
So… why hustle for £250/month (minus all the stress) when you could be aiming for £100,000+ per deal instead?
Here’s what we’d do instead:
- Focus on property development deals.
- Secure sites on options (so you’re not buying the land outright).
- Get planning permission.
- Trade the deal on.
You can pull six-figure profits from one deal—without taking on 10 mortgages or managing 10 properties full of students and Airbnb tourists.
Instead of scraping together £30,000/year from a portfolio of HMOs (with all the debt and hassle), you could do 5 development deals at £200k profit each and make £1 million.
Same time and energy. Completely different outcome.
Even the trendy “rent-to-rent” strategies some gurus love teaching are just a job in disguise. You don’t own the asset. No long-term upside. Sure, less debt risk—but you also miss out on property’s biggest advantage: leveraging real, lasting value.
Bottom line:
If you really want passive income, you need to make serious money first. Then you can buy truly passive assets—like a prime retail property with a rock-solid tenant (say, a Tesco convenience store on a 15-year lease).
Tesco doesn’t call you when the bathroom needs painting. They don’t move out with a month’s notice. That’s real armchair investing.
So yeah—don’t fall for the promise of easy £250/month “passive income” when you could be playing a much smarter game for 30–50x the reward.
Think bigger. Work smarter. That’s the move.