Private Property Sourcing — United Kingdom Founding cohort, 2026

Buy-to-lets built to stand the test of time.

A founder-led sourcing house, placing below-market buy-to-let and HMO opportunities with a small cohort of UK investors. We source for ten years, not twelve months.

Begin a conversation  → How we work
13%
Minimum IRR target
6
UK regions
10yr
Growth thesis
2%
Sourcing fee
Founding cohort · 2026

We are taking on a small founding group of investors this year. Twelve placements. No more.

Apply for the cohort
01 The Approach

Three tests. Every deal.

Property value is created by the area, by household income, and by patient analysis. Every property we place must pass all three. The ones that don't, we walk away from.

— 01 —

The Numbers

Internal rate of return modelled over ten years — not headline yield. Rent, rental growth, and capital growth, all stress-tested. We target a minimum 13% IRR. Below that, we pass.

— 02 —

The Area

Ofsted-rated schools. Hospital catchment. Transport within ten minutes. Committed regeneration capital. The fundamentals that make a postcode appreciate over ten years, not just twelve months.

— 03 —

The Income

Median household income to property price. The investable zone is four to seven times. Above that, affordability caps growth. It is the test most sourcers miss — and the one that matters most.

02 The Process

From mandate to completion.

Every placement follows the same four stages. Eight to fourteen weeks, end to end. We move at the pace of doing it properly.

Week One

Mandate Definition

We sit down to understand your capital position, your risk appetite, and your investment horizon. Out of that comes a written sourcing brief: regions, asset type, target IRR, exit assumptions. You sign it off before we source anything.

Stage I
Stage II
Weeks Two to Six

Sourcing & Research

Postcode-level street research, comparables, schools, transport, regeneration capital, household-income ratios. Every property we shortlist is underwritten to a 13% IRR floor over ten years — leveraged and unleveraged. The numbers come before the viewing.

Weeks Seven to Eight

Viewings & Negotiation

You see only properties that pass all three tests. We attend viewings on your behalf, build a refurb scope where relevant, and negotiate against documented comparables — not motivated-seller theatrics. Offer accepted at a price the model justifies.

Stage III
Stage IV
Weeks Eight to Fourteen

Solicitor-Ready Hand-off

You receive the full deal pack — comparables, ROI model, refurb scope, negotiation file — ready for your conveyancer the day you say yes. We stay engaged through completion, supporting your solicitor and managing the move from offer-accepted to keys-in-hand.

03 Where we source

Six cities. One thesis.

Six UK cities where employment, regeneration, schools and household income all agree. Each with a distinct sourcing thesis.

Top Yield
9.7%
Newcastle
North East · NE4 · NE6 · NE8

Highest yields of any major UK city. £120m committed to Gateshead Quays regeneration. RVI training hospital, 50,000+ students, Metro from core streets.

Entry £115k+
Top Yield
9.6%
Leeds
West Yorkshire · LS6 · LS11 · LS9

£16bn South Bank New Town designation. £20bn ten-year economic plan targeting 100,000 new jobs. Strongest balance of yield and regeneration capital.

Entry £140k+
Top Yield
9.0%
Nottingham
East Midlands · NG7 · NG3 · NG8

60,000+ students across two universities. Queen's Medical Centre — one of Europe's largest training hospitals. Strongest affordability cushion of our regions.

Entry £130k+
Top Yield
7.4%
Manchester
Greater Manchester · M11 · M14 · M5

Fastest UK regional job growth. 80 of the FTSE 100 present. Amazon, Disney, BNY Mellon establishing HQs. £175m for Victoria North regeneration confirmed 2026.

Entry £155k+
Top Yield
7.3%
Liverpool
Merseyside · L4 · L6 · L7 · L8

£14bn regeneration-led renaissance. £2bn LCR Investment Fund launched 2026. New life sciences innovation zone. Everton stadium driving 1.4m annual visitors to the North Docks.

Entry £110k+
Top Yield
7.0%
Birmingham
West Midlands · B29 · B8 · B10

Second city with continued regeneration momentum. Strong HMO market around Selly Oak (University of Birmingham). Solid fundamentals for long-term BTL.

Entry £140k+
04 How we work together

Two services. One discipline.

A bespoke buyer's agent engagement, or curated deal-flow into a private network. Both built on the same sourcing standards.

Tier One

Private Client

A bespoke buyer's agent engagement for one investor at a time.

  • One dedicated sourcing mandate to your criteria
  • Postcode & street-level research report
  • Deal packaging with comparables, refurb, ROI modelling
  • Viewings, negotiation, solicitor-ready on your behalf
  • Open to investors from £50k deployable capital
Sourcing fee
2% of purchase price or £6,000 minimum, per property
Below-market sourcing means the discount typically covers the fee several times over.
Enquire about Private Client
Tier Two

The Network

Curated deal-flow for HNW & Sophisticated investors.

  • First-look access — every deal sourced, 48hrs ahead of anyone else
  • Founder direct line — WhatsApp access, no inbox queue
  • Off-market deal flow — properties never seen on Rightmove
  • Annual market intelligence report — yields, regeneration, forward thesis
  • Annual private investor day — twelve members, one dinner
  • HNW or Sophisticated Investor certification (s21 FSMA)
Sourcing fee
2% of purchase price or £5,000 minimum, per property
Below-market sourcing means the discount typically covers the fee several times over.
Join the Network
Gemma Mabin, founder of The Residency Co.
05 The Founder

Most sourcers source for this year. I source for ten.

I spent twelve years building and running businesses in London — most recently a gym I built from launch to exit. Property has been my parallel obsession for years.

Building a service business in London teaches you three things: how to underwrite recurring revenue, how to retain customers in a market with infinite alternatives, and how to make every operating decision pay back. Those are the same disciplines that make a portfolio of buy-to-let properties pay back over ten years — and most property sourcers have never had to learn them.

I bought my own home undervalued, took it through a full forced-appreciation strategy, and saw what disciplined sourcing does to investor capital. The Residency Co. is what happens when an operator who has run a service business at scale turns her full attention to UK residential property. Numbers first, narrative second.

I am taking on a small founding cohort of investors in 2026. If you would like to be one of them, I would love to talk.

Gemma Mabin
Founder, The Residency Co.
06 Questions

Questions, answered.

The questions investors ask before working with us. Straight answers, no gloss.

Because twelve is the number of mandates I can run properly — with the depth of research, the number of viewings, and the negotiation hours each placement deserves. Most sourcing houses operate on volume, taking on as many clients as they can find and stretching the operator across all of them. I would rather work with twelve investors closely than three hundred at a distance. The ratio is what makes the proposition work: you get the founder's full attention, and a real pipeline of opportunities curated specifically against your mandate.
Because what I deliver is not what most sourcers deliver. The standard sourcing model is volume — walk a high street, spot a 20% discount, package it, sell it on. The deal looks good on paper today. Whether it pays back in ten years is someone else's problem.

That is not how I work. Every placement involves postcode-level research, a ten-year IRR model, area fundamentals tested against schools, transport, household income and regeneration capital, and a negotiation built on documented comparables. Behind a single placement sits weeks of estate-agent calls, viewings, deal modelling, and investor relationship work that most sourcers never put in.

The £6,000 reflects that — the time, the asset, and the standard of work behind the property you end up holding. If you are looking for the cheapest sourcing fee in the market, I am not the right partner. If you are looking for the placement that still pays you in 2036, I am.
2% of the agreed purchase price, with a £6,000 minimum on Private Client engagements and £5,000 minimum on The Network — charged per property placed.

Because every placement is sourced below market, the discount on a typical deal is several times the fee itself. The maths means that even after my fee, you are acquiring an asset for less than its market value — and that delta is your equity, not mine. There are no retainer fees and no surcharges.
Yes. The Residency Co. is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, supervised by HMRC for Anti-Money Laundering, a member of the Property Redress Scheme, and carries Professional Indemnity Insurance. Private Client engagements are provided under the Estate Agents Act 1979. The Network operates as a s21 FSMA-compliant communication, available only to investors who self-certify as High Net Worth or Sophisticated.
Private Client engagements start from £50k of deployable capital — enough to source a single buy-to-let in our entry markets (Newcastle, Liverpool, Nottingham). The Network typically suits investors deploying £150k+ across multiple placements. We will confirm the appropriate route based on your objectives.
From engagement to completion is typically eight to fourteen weeks — mandate definition (one week), sourcing and packaging (three to six weeks), viewings and offer (two weeks), and conveyancing (four to six weeks). We move at the pace of doing it properly, not the pace of closing the deal.
No. The Residency Co. sources buy-to-let and HMO opportunities for long-term hold. We do not source flips, lease-options, or short-let arbitrage. If your strategy is short-term capital plays, we are not the right partner.
— Begin a conversation —

Apply to the founding cohort.

Tell us where you are. We will reply within two working days with either a tailored sourcing conversation or our next deal pack — whichever matches your position best.

The Residency Co. operates two service models. Private Client engagements are provided under the Estate Agents Act 1979 and are open to all UK investors. The Network is a s21 FSMA-compliant service available only to investors who self-certify as High Net Worth or Sophisticated. We will confirm the appropriate route based on your enquiry.