Welcome and thank you for looking at this blog. As the website has just been re-launched this first blog will aim to tell you
In short, we are Aidan and Avril Magee, Co-Directors of Busk Properties Ltd, sole traders for other properties and most importantly, husband and wife.
We began our property journey in 2016. By then we had been in a relationship together for five years, which gave us the time to be sure that we were committed, know what our respective strengths were, that we shared key values of honesty, integrity, commitment to our family and financial trust with each other. All are key elements that you need with a business partner, regardless of whether it is your husband or wife!!!
Before we embarked on our property journey, we had very different professional backgrounds, as outlined below:
Aidan graduated with a chemistry degree and worked as an industrial chemist before being made redundant. After a short period teaching in adult and higher education, he became interested in the growing computer industry (at the time!) and re-trained at Manchester University, obtaining a post graduate degree in Computing.
He then embarked on working for global companies, including IBM and Oracle, before setting up as a consultant who specialised in designing and managing complex databases for both private and public sector organisations. He ‘retired’ in 2016 but felt he had more left to give, hence the start of our property journey.
Avril graduated with a law degree, but took a divergent path into the Probation Service, having worked for them as a volunteer whilst still a student. Her career in various Probation Services spanned over 30 years and at the time she left, she was a Senior Manager with responsibility for managing the supply chain, having gained CIPS qualifications once the Service was privatised. She then joined the Department for Work and Pensions, managing the policy side of a national programme which supported people with a disability into employment. After a short break, her final role in employment was as an investigation officer for the General Medical Council, which she left to be able to focus completely on the property journey.
Our first business property purchase was a 2 bedroomed terrace. We bought a second and then flipped a third, following a back to brick refurbishment. This led to the purchase of a 4 bedroomed student house, a 4 bedroomed family home and a 6 bedroomed HMO.
Following COVID and the increased cost of living increases, we realised that our appetite and our awareness were growing, so we embarked on property development training via #Property CEO. We ‘tested’ it out by a complete refurbishment of our 6 bedroomed HMO resulting in increased customer demand and increased rents.
Having gained confidence we bought another property which is our current project . We expect the work to be completed in August 2025 and tenants to be moving in during September 2025.
Outside of our working lives we are parents to 4 couples and grandparents to 7 , which certainly keeps us busy doing school runs and babysitting. We also have wider family both in the UK and abroad, including Avril’s fit and healthy 93-year-old mother! Our friends are based both locally and further afield and we value them very highly.
We have always enjoyed being active, whether growing our own vegetables (good crop this year due to the spring sunshine!). We’ve run in 5 half marathon events, done a trek across the Pyrenees and completed x2 100km walks in approximately 24 hours each.
In addition Aidan crewed with friends in the ARC cross Atlantic sailing race in 2019 and Avril volunteered as a Samaritan, which she hopes to return to in the near future. We are both foodies, who love cooking at home and dining out, theatre goers, readers and news junkies! Variety really is the spice of our lives, not bad for foodies!!!
We turn tired older buildings into desirable and sustainable places to live and work. This is by undertaking a full refurbishment and often a reconfiguration of the building, to add value. We always do the refurbishments to a high standard, as we do not want to rent or sell a property which we would not be willing to live in ourselves
We work alongside our trusted team members, whom we have taken time to build a relationship with and who understand our vision for the type of property we want to offer, whether that be for sale or rental.
Our aim is to make the properties as sustainable as possible by ensuring that they are well insulated and where possible can host green energy utilities. Being older buildings can make this more difficult, but we have reliable assessors and providers that we consult when needed.
We are already seeing the savings that being sustainable brings in terms of the utility bills. In terms of achieving further savings, Avril has become a Utility Warehouse partner as a side hustle and is available to help others achieve savings on utility, mobile, broadband and home insurance bills too. Please contact her if you wish to find out more about this opportunity Contact Us
Now you know a bit more about us, we want to share what’s coming next: