TWO millionaire landlady sisters who rake in £72,000 a year doing nothing have revealed how they built their property portfolio.
Ruth Shipley-Palmer, 32, and Becky Shipley, 33, bought two houses in Bristol – their home city – at age 20 after a family friend gave them an initial investment to use as mortgage deposits.
The sisters refurbished the properties – a £150,000 four-bed and a five-bed worth £160,000 – turning them into self-managed houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) in 2014.
They had initially tried to find an ‘angel’ investor – a stranger who funds the project.
But as is so often the case with young people who own property, the pair were fortunate enough to have a wealthy benefactor – in this case a family friend – who coughed up the cash for them.
The sisters refurbished the properties and rented them out, providing a 10 per cent return on the initial investment.
They then refinanced the two houses after two years, giving them an estimated £150,000 in capital to immediately invest in another property.
They used this to to buy another four-bed property for £180,000 with a mortgage in 2016. They also turned this into an HMO.
The pair did this again five more times – buying new properties for between £150,000 and £327,000 through refinancing.
They now have eight properties in total, with their empire now worth more than £2 million, earning them a £120,000 turnover per year.
This brings in £72,000 profit as passive income – more than double the UK average salary for a full-time employee, which is £34,963, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.
Five of the properties are buy-to-let – three of which are houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs).
Three are serviced accommodation.
All of the properties have interest-only mortgages.
Ruth and Becky say their goal is to achieve time freedom and financial security so they can spend more time doing things they love.
They plan to own a total of 14 properties by 2030, and say their ultimate goal is 10 properties each.
The average age for owning a home is 36, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures for 2022.
One-in-five first-time buyers is now over the age of 40.
House prices have nearly doubled over the past 20 years, rising by 98 per cent.
In March this year, the average house price was £283,000.
For the same month in 2004, the average house price in England was just £142,571.
The sisters say they want to help other people – particularly women – replicate their path.
They share advice on their podcast, Honest Proper-tea, for any other budding property tycoons.
Becky said: “Landlords are usually painted badly so we wanted to say we’re not all like that.
As young women, representation in property is important to us
Becky Shipley
“It’s good for us to be role models for other women in particular – we’re making the most of life.
“We want to represent a different type of property investor and help other people on their way to achieving time freedom and financial security.
“When we decided to learn about how property works, we didn’t know anyone who was investing who could teach us what to do.
“We went on a course in London and we were the only young women in the room – everyone else was a middle-aged man which was quite intimidating.
“We’re wanting to share with other people how to do this for themselves, it’s knowledge everyone should have.”
Ruth said: “We realised we wanted to find way to keep a freelance career while being financially secure and started looking into how we could do that.
“When we started, we didn’t have any friends buying houses and we ended up managing to buy two houses at same time in Bristol.
“We refurbished them and turned them into self-managed HMOs in 2014.
“We tried to find an ‘angel’ investor – someone you don’t know who funds your investment – but we found a family friend who invested in us in the end.”
They say their inspiration for investing in property came from seeing their dad Nick Shipley, 71, work as a self-employed cameraman.
The pair also started their own pet care company while studying at the University of West of England, with Ruth studying Fine Art and Becky studying Geography and Tourism.
They sold it in 2023 to focus full-time on their property investment company.
Now, they say they’ve achieved financial security and time freedom, currently working on average 21 hours a week.
Ruth said: “We’re continuing to grow our property business by teaching people how to do it themselves.
“A huge reason why we invested in property is we wanted to look after our parents when they get older.”
Becky said: “As young women, representation in property is important to us.”
