Doing more with less

By Martin Skinner, Following on from my bright side article, I’m pleased to be able to report that the positive mental attitude approach appears to be working out rather well.  Investors (including my own little family office) have bought no less than 13 auction/receivership properties through Inspired Asset Management in the last month alone – [...]

Always look on the bright side of life

By Martin Skinner, The last few weeks have been frantically busy and while lots of big deals are on the horizon, fundraising and transaction setbacks are still frequent and frustrating. On the personal front I’ve just returned from a trip to New Zealand and best man duties at a close friend’s wedding.  In fact I [...]

Fall in GDP can spell a growth in opportunities

By Martin Skinner, Martin Skinner At home in the Skinner household Jack is growing up fast and the focus is now on education.  Magdalena is teaching him English, Polish, Chinese, swimming, walking, and maths. And I’ve been chipping in with football, video games, iPhones and blowing raspberries.  Is this a good modern example of division [...]

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day …

By Martin Skinner, Martin Skinner Well after keeping radio silence for what seems quite a while, I’m proud to introduce a new member of the team to everyone.  Jack Christopher Skinner was born on the 26th March 2010! Jack Christopher Skinner Jack has already chosen his football team (Tottenham Hotspur needless to say) and is [...]

Residential – what’s it all about then?

By Martin Skinner A love affair – my story I’ve been a passionate advocate of residential property investment particularly in London since I bought my first investment property our in the far reaches of London’s Docklands in 2002.  My love affair with residential began much earlier though… I spent my formative years from 7-18 growing [...]

Location, Location, Yield !

By Martin Skinner Right the snow’s over everybody and it’s time to get this show back on the road! Unfortunately it’s likely to be quite a long and bumpy road so I thought I’d kick the years blog off with a priority Top 3.  Hopefully it’ll help keep things focussed on the journey towards financial [...]

Overcoming Social Media Niggles

Overcoming My Social Media Niggles By Martin Skinner The Christmas & New Year break this year gave me the opportunity to play with a lot of the sites and settings I’ve struggled to clear from my to-do list. Two things in particular had been really frustrating me and I’ve now solved them so I thought [...]

What’s better than an Xmas card?

Yesterday morning I woke up excited by an idea. I’ve been feeling guilty about not sending out an Xmas card to all my contacts. I didn’t send one this year because: I’ve been busy/lazy and didn’t get around to it Everyone else does that and at heart I’m a bit of a contrarian When I [...]

Bad, but this year could have been a lot worse

This article from the Sunday Times summed up the year very well.  Some of my take-outs were: Deflation averted – good news Temporary inflation boost over Xmas & in the New Year – better than deflation Global growth estimated at 3% in 2010 by the IMF V-shaped recovery likely By David Smith We have all [...]

Student Accommodation Comes of Age (Property Week)

By Doug Morrison Property Week and Unite’s student accommodation conference highlights supply-demand imbalance Last month Unite Group, the UK’s biggest developer and manager of student accommodation, raised £21.5m from the sale and leaseback of a 395-bed block in Bristol to M&G Secured Property Income Fund. The sale price reflected a net initial yield of 6.07%. [...]