When Christina De Jonge bought her first house at auction in 2020, she had no idea it would become the start of a 15-property portfolio.
Five years later, the mother of five from Manchester runs a thriving buy-to-let business that has helped put her children through private school and is projected to be worth around £3m by the time she retires.
Christina, 46, bought her first mid-terraced property in central Manchester for £68,000 at auction and renovated it to become her “most profitable buy-to-let”, with the house now worth roughly £125,000 and generating a 17 per cent yield, based on her original costs.
She has since gone on to invest in 14 more properties over the past five years, mostly in the Manchester area. She now believes the property portfolio could be worth around £3m by retirement, which she and her husband plan to use as their pension.
The estimate is based on the equity she has in the properties now, professional valuations and their projected growth by the time she wants to retire, which is in ten years or so.
Christina has converted a range of terraced homes, including turning some houses into multiple separate flats or houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), often adding £75,000 to £100,000 to the value of the properties.
“I always had an idea to get into property investing, but the day I walked into a property auction, I wasn’t expecting to walk out with my first [investment] property at all,” she said.
“But I ended up identifying this really great deal, a converted terraced property in a regenerating area of Manchester, which meant stamp duty was low and the council tax rate was low. That remains our most profitable property to date.”
Christina and her husband then decided to throw themselves into property investing, and their business has become their main source of income – despite many landlords currently exiting the market because of tighter regulations and rising costs.
Many buy-to-let investors have been selling up their properties over the past few years following concerns around how the Renters’ Rights Act would affect them, higher mortgage rates, and new energy certificate requirements.
But Christina, who was a full-time mum before investing in property, doesn’t understand the negativity and has no regrets about becoming a landlord, saying it has enabled them to put their kids through private school and should allow them to retire much earlier than if they had pursued a different career.
“This business has given us a beautiful pension pot, the capital growth should end up around £3m by the time we come to retire. At the moment, we could semi-retire in five years. The only reason we can’t now is because the majority of our revenue goes on paying for our kids’ education,” she said.
“We had four kids in private school at once, and we now have an 11-year-old who has another five years to go, so I can’t retire until then, but our income has allowed us to comfortably put them all through private school. That has given them amazing opportunities for life.”
In fact, Christina is very supportive of rules tightening for landlords and believes it will only make the remaining buy-to-let businesses stronger.
“Whatever the government brings in to weed out rogue landlords, I’m in favour – I’m not opposed to the conditions that have been brought in by the Renters’ Rights Act or anything. I think if you do things right from the get-go, you shouldn’t be too impacted when the laws change,” she said.
“These laws are designed to protect citizens and that’s what the government is there for. I think landlords just need to have to have a certain amount of versatility, and you need to have strong foundations.”
She added: “Another thing that has worked for us as landlords is having a personal relationship with our tenants. We don’t tend to go through letting agents. This means we have less issues and we can keep our costs down.”
How they funded the purchases and grew the business
The first few properties were bought with bridging loans, which are short-term loans designed to ‘bridge a gap’ while you wait for more permanent finance options, such as a mortgage.
But over the past few years, she has shifted to using a HELOC financing model.
This type of loan allows you to borrow against the value of your home. You don’t take a lump sum; instead, you have a credit limit and can dip in and out of borrowing as and when you need it.
HELOCs offer a “revolving line of credit”, which means you can draw funds up to a set limit as needed, repay them and then redraw again, acting almost like a credit card. The HELOC Christina uses is through Selina Finance.
“Our first few properties were bought with bridging finance, which suits an auction model because you can get the money very quickly, but the rates were high – around 7.9 per cent,” she said.
“We then moved on to using HELOC in about 2024, which offered more favourable rates of around 5.4 per cent and allowed us to borrow extra money to renovate the homes, which was much better for us.
“I like the transparency and control of a HELOC; it makes it easier because you can see exactly what you’re using and repay it flexibly.”
HELOCs are not common products in the UK and can come with some risk.
As the borrowing is secured against the home, missed repayments could put the property at risk.
The products are also usually set up as a second charge, meaning the interest rates and arrangement fees are higher than for a first charge mortgage. Short-term loans and revolving credit must be used responsibly.
Christina says the strategy has worked for her because she typically buys undervalued properties, renovates them and keeps a close eye on costs, but she accepts it would not suit everyone.
How HELOC works
HELOC allows you to borrow against the equity you have built up in your property.
The loan is secured against your property – meaning it can be taken if you can’t make the repayments.
Funds are received as a line of credit, meaning you borrow as needed up to a set limit over a predetermined timeframe of up to five years.
You then repay the money at a variable interest rate, over a period of up to 30 years.
The minimum amount you can borrow is £10,000 and the maximum is £500,000. There is also a product fee of £1,395.
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