To want to share my shock at this?

Yes, it’s absolutely possible and why we renovated our parents house ourselves. We did no building work, it was mainly free labour (mine), blood, sweat, tears, followed by a massive deep clean.

We kept costs very low. These were skip, replacement glass in front window for blown double glazing, a bit of plastering, new kitchen doors and handles and tiling above worktop. New carpets and litres and litres of paint. The garden took a bit of work but that cost time not money. And finally for extra bling - new chrome sockets, light switches and door knobs.

It was all very greige and my mother would have hated it but I did paint the downstairs loo in pale pink in her memory. I think she would have liked that.

We aren’t developers but have always bought tired old houses for ourselves so knew it could be done. Not quite as fast or grand as a developer and we didn’t make hundreds of thousands of pounds but the extra £80k we got from the sale meant my brother was able to finally get on the housing ladder.

Editing to add that the finish was really good and miles better than a homes under the hammer bodge - even though I do say so myself 😜

It's the way these developers make money. The quicker they do it, the less mortgage interest they have to pay and the more profit they make.

Many years ago, I bought a flat for £130k that had just been gutted and re-done. New bathroom, kitchen, boiler, carpets, everything. Nothing was high spec, other than the boiler, but everything was done well and suited me perfectly. He probably spent about £10k doing it up.

He bought it in the April and I bought it in the September. I must have put an offer in around June to get the completion done in time, so the developer spent around 2 months to do the work. He'd bought it for £93k, so £10k costs = £27k profit (less any finance and legal costs).

It’s what developers do, they have good builders on call, know how to renovate without wasting money.

That sounds about right. Experienced developers have a recipe for each property, they know what buyers will want. Also building materials have risen in price hugely since Covid. Add in skilled labour. They’ve priced it a bit more than what they’ll accept yo make a profit which will then go into the next property.

Our builders did a full renovation and double height wraparound extension with us living in white they did it in less time than that, I wouldn't ever expect it to take a year! Depending on what they've done they might have spent 100-150k on it so again the price isn't too surprising especially as they've likely put it on at a speculative price.

Share a link so we can have a look?

It seems fast but it's hugely faster to renovate an empty house than one which is occupied. Also a developer will have a team ready to go - no wasted time waiting for individual contractors to find a slot to attend, someone project managing and coordinating everything including planning, party wall agreements, building control, insurance etc.

It's lovely to hear you have enjoyed seeing the house getting a new lease of life!

Ha, good for your friend. If we could all just 'get used to the colour on the walls', the world would be in a better state!

I think that timeline sounds about right and actually, suggests they've done a very thorough job. We have had a few friends who have bought houses needing a huge overhaul and it's usually about this amount of time, so a professional developer with something of a formula would be able to do it easily in that time, or even a bit quicker because no residents to work around, no homeowners agonising over finishes etc.

It took the developer who bought the land at the end of our garden only about a year from when he started work to having people move in - and he built 3 houses!

No need to if you have good relationships with the trades I would think. The consistent flow of work is profitable for the trades, but it's only consistent with a quick turnaround to release the funds for the next project.

Don’t forget as well as all the other costs mentioned the developer will also be paying capital gains tax

I can’t see many developers going for an uplift clause defeats the whole object.

About 16 weeks is what I would expect for an average job, 12 for a Homes under the Hammer bodge job.

We bought a trashed out house owned by two brothers it had been on the market for six months with no offers it cost 500,000 four months later was back on the market totally sprucedand sold in the first week for 750,000.

That sounds about right. Property developers have a skill not everyone has: to be able to size up an old property, have a good idea how much a new roof/rewire/bathroom/kitchen/redecoration/re-carpet etc etc; how long it’d take and know who their subbies are and their availability. This is entirely how they make their money!

He bought to do up and re sell, of course time is of the essence and has to be done quickly.

Quick turnaround is probably down to having decent trades 'on hand' who want repeat business from the developer = high spec + high cost + all hands on deck = (hopefully) premium price and more profit. Good for them, it is impressive.

A house near me sold for a million. It was an HMO and in a disgusting state. The developers took a while (just under a year) but turned it into 3 lovely flats which sold for about £750k each.

There's a 2 bed bungalow on my lane which was bought by a developer for c.£250k - needed a lot of work. He started at the end of Jan, ripped out the front garden and hedgerow which is going to be parking, and took the roof off, which took about two days for the two. He's turning it into a five bed house including balcony and 5 en suites, (isn't much left of the garden because he's built further back). He's finished with the house, and is now just fitting it out which will probably take another month. It's on for £800k with the draft layout only.

He's had people here every single day of the week since the hedgerow was ripped out end of Jan, including weekends and bank hols. They have started work from 0610 on some days. For the first two months there were four vans, one car and one motorbike here (so huge issues with parking!) plus deliveries several times a day every day. He's very greedy, and arrogant, and time is money - he wants it finished, sold, and the money in the bank so that he can start on the next one.

That's why they're called developers. My sister-in-law's house sold for £302,000. Completely unmodernised big 1930s semi. The buyers took every interior wall back to brick, complete rewire, replumb, new heating system, replaced every door, every window, some of the floors, 2 new bathrooms, a big wraparound extension incorporating a kitchen/diner, and a freestanding garage and new driveway. It sold the day it went on the market for £525,000. They made a fabulous job of it, took about 6 months. I couldn't have directed such a project, could you?

Yes, good point

People have upgraded houses much quicker and sold for much bigger profits over the last 20 or so years, the only thing I'm surprised with is that people are still managing to do this as the profits have become much smaller