Hi all,

I currently have a portfolio of 5 buy to lets in London and I'm looking at moving into doing development full time later in the year. The plan is to buy, develop and the rent out in order to expand my portfolio.
It looks as prices wont be doing anything for the next while and with London being such a resilient market
I see it as a good way of forcing some short term equity in a strong rental market.

After refinancing some of my current portfolio I should have a working capital of say £125k.
The plan is to buy 1/2 bed properties between 175k-200k (starting small), financed with a 15-20% down payment on a no redemption fee buy to own mortgage. Once work is complete refinance with a 85% B-2-L mortagage, to release any profit made. I'm aiming for a moderate 15% return. This would then either be used as tax free income or added back to the working capital.

Is this the best way to finance this kind of strategy or is there a better way of doing it?
Developers mortgage, Bridging finance etc? Any advice / different strategies would really be appreciated?

Cheers,
Gav