A little over 10 years ago, Tom & Jack Atha were University dropouts who had decided further education wasn’t for them & they wanted to get stuck into the working world. With a natural passion for property development, their mind was set on developing a skillset that they could build upon and ultimately build a business from, with an admirable portfolio. Inspired by their Dad who is a well respected business man in the Teesside area, that’s exactly what they did.
Today, their property portfolio stands at an incredible £12m but it certainly hasn’t been plain sailing along the way for the Middlesbrough born twins. They’ll be the first to admit that they’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, but also learnt to fail fast which enabled them to scale quickly. From renovating town houses & building luxury homes in Teesside to finding their niche in the world of Student Accommodation, Tom & Jack Atha have come a long way since their early days working as labourers on a site in Stokesley.
Tom: “We knew that if we wanted to make it in this industry, we’d need to get our hands dirty & learn as much about all of the construction trades as possible. So that’s what we did! We started off in 2010 living in a caravan on a friends construction site & worked as labourers for their tradesmen. It’s safe to say it was a bit of a culture shock for two lads who didn’t know what end of a hammer to hold but we were determined to succeed so we got on with it & learnt the basics of turning an outbuilding into a house. That was our first step on the property ladder & it was up to us to carve out a business from there.”
Once their first project was complete, it was time to take on their first proper challenge by themselves in the construction industry. In 2011, they received family investment to purchase a town house in Middlesbrough for 70k. The twins tasked themselves with completing the renovation & it eventually became their first buy to let property, but not before teaching the lads some valuable lessons about what NOT to do when renovating a property, including not ignoring the correct way to change a stop tap as they soon found out it would lead to them flooding their entire first property investment.
From this initial renovation, and the important lessons learnt, followed multiple town house investments, a Victorian property refurbishment into Student Accommodation & 2 luxury Residential builds, all based in Teesside.
Fast forward to 2022 and they have added their most lucrative property to date to their portfolio, their flagship student accommodation block; St James Studios which was completed & fully occupied by September 2018. They also own a Business Centre in the North East & are currently moving into the final stages of another large scale student accommodation development named Dorman House, comprising of another 55 apartments on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough. This one is due for completion later this year.
Jack: “It’s took years of trial and error, and also a great deal of graft, to get to this point. We’re big believers in helping the local community & we know property development is an area of high interest for lots of people. We’ve seen the prices people charge for Property Development courses too! If anyone wanted to ask us more details about our journey or any advice on investments/developments, we’re always happy to help! We’re grateful to have had a helping hand in the early days by securing family investment. If we can help others in any way at all, we’d love to offer that helping hand in return.”
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