The story…so far!

It all began when Sam Brown and Matt Peddle (we) founded Premier Living as a partnership in 2014…and accelerated when we discovered our passion for refurbishing ‘tired’ or redundant buildings to provide much needed accommodation in our locality. This is how we got here…

Technically, we really started the year before. Knowing we wanted to do something together, but not specifically what, we speculatively purchased our first terraced house on Ernest Street in Crewe, which we still own to this day.

From there, we initially concentrated on providing high quality accommodation on a professional house share basis and soon established over 60 rooms in properties situated in prime locations across Crewe and Nantwich. This rapid expansion was built on the foundation of offering a great environment for people to live in, whilst ensuring that any issues were dealt with in an efficient manner – simple, but effective!

It was really in 2016 when we truly discovered our ethos and the business changed to become what it is today. It was evident that there was demand from our existing tenants who wanted to take the ‘next step’ and move in with a partner or simply enjoy their own space, so we started to look for a suitable property to enable us to offer self -contained accommodation.

An agent proposed Link House, which had been boarded up for close to a decade and had become a magnet for anti-social behaviour. The opportunity to extend the building whilst refurbishing the existing, dilapidated apartments was there, with the added bonus of bringing a building back into operation. Traditional outside, modern inside…something we have since replicated many times.

Something interesting happened as the project progressed…we were actually thanked by the local community for ‘sorting out that *******e’! The building is on a prominent corner of Crewe and it’s no exaggeration to say that it really lifted the area when the project was complete. Our ethos was born to replicate this and in essence ‘improve our local area’ (technicality number two, Matt isn’t from round here but everyone else is!).

Premier Living Homes Ltd was therefore incorporated with the aim of taking ‘tired’ buildings and giving them a new lease of life…or repurposing buildings that had come to the end of their existing use. As well as old offices, these have included some weird and wonderful properties including a wool shop, dojo and off licence!

These are often buildings with local historical interest and period architectural features that we look to retain. Examples being -

Davenport House – a stunning period property built in 1880 which was previously a school and childrens home. There were plans to knock it down and replace it with new build units…but thankfully we were able to purchase it and retrofit into apartments.

RBS Bank – we realised the potential immediately to not only refurbish the existing building, but to extend upwards to incorporate some amazing, original art deco features into what is now Nantwich’s best penthouse!

Lea House – the epitome of tired offices, which hadn’t received any investment since the 1980’s. Again, we have completely retrofitted the internals of the existing building and just by changing the windows and external decor, have transformed it markedly.

On adding a contracting side to the business to enable us to control our own projects…and now offering accommodation in the form of single lets, house shares and apartments as well as commercial property…we felt that we needed to rebrand to better reflect that. Hence, we introduced Premier Living Group as our trading name.

Additionally, it has always been important to us to keep everything in house, thus we expanded our team to bring in local property experts to maintain our exemplary service levels across an expanding portfolio. We also ensure that the team are kept abreast of any changes in legislation by holding a membership with the NRLA and attending multiple of their excellent courses throughout the year helping to ensure our properties are as safe as they can be.

We also feel it is important to have similar involvement at a local level and therefore joined the Cheshire Landlord Accreditation Scheme (CLAS) a number of years ago. This is a voluntary scheme to ensure landlord activity is consistent across the county with local authority practices. Moreover, it recognises the achievements of landlords who maintain properties to a standard exceeding that required by law.

Moving forward, we are looking to continue to invest purely in properties in need of refurbishment, in part because it has become evident that retrofitting buildings is crucially also a far greener option. Not only do the buildings themselves become more energy efficient…but the option to retrofit avoids the carbon emissions caused by demolishing and building from scratch, in particular the large amount emitted from cement and steel produced by construction.

According to a report commissioned by the National Trust, Historic England and leading property organisations, retrofitting buildings can play a crucial role in achieving climate targets and we are delighted to play our small part.

So, what does the next decade look like for the Premier Living Group?

Our commitment to tenants will remain the same – to employ a dynamic and professional approach to providing high quality accommodation, whilst ensuring the values of dealing directly with a committed local landlord are upheld - efficiency, responsiveness and trustworthiness.

Our commitment to anyone we are buying from will remain the same – if we agree a deal, we will complete on it. They can also be assured that any discussions will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

Our commitment to the local area will remain the same – we look to preserve heritage by ensuring all buildings that can be refurbished and retro fitted are retained within the community.

We therefore continue to look for ‘tired’ blocks of flats and empty commercial property to repurpose, as well as portfolios that require investment, across Crewe, Nantwich and Sandbach. We will continue to refurbish, repurpose and retrofit to supply much needed quality housing stock and improve living standards for all in our locality.

Driven by performance efficiency, producing quality products and delivering optimum service levels, those skills have been transferred to ensure that the expanding portfolio is proactively managed with any issues immediately dealt with. He purchased his first property in Crewe in 2003 and has an abundance of local knowledge which ensures that any new ventures are well located for future tenants. His experience of managing large teams of staff and contractors also ensures that Group projects are invariably delivered on time and within budget.

Having graduated from Aston Business School in 1999, achieving a 2.1 in Business & Marketing, he is keen to bring innovative ideas to the fore. Customer focus was a requisite to bring about a successful account management career and this same passion and attention to detail is now accentuated on delivering Premier Living Group tenants service above their expectation levels. Moreover, utilising his negotiation skills has enabled the portfolio to be established on a solid foundation, whilst his ability to build creative solutions has helped numerous fellow investors solve their problems.

Having worked in sales, lettings and property management she has a wide knowledge of the property sector, with her main focus now of delivering great customer service and ensuring the smooth running of the tenancies within the Premier Living Group portfolio.

Hannah’s meticulous attention to detail is particularly important for guaranteeing all properties are legally compliant and the everchanging legislation is adhered to. Born and bred in Crewe and Nantwich she has a great local knowledge that she is happy to pass onto tenants.

Gemma Park has been working in the property industry for the past 5 years covering all areas to include sales, lettings and property management.

Gemma started working within the industry after completing 10 years with a training company. Gemma is keen to develop her skills within the lettings industry and is working towards completing her NRLA Managing Residential Property and lettings Level 3 Certificate.

Gemma offers a professional service to all tenants and thrives in offering outstanding customer service. Living locally, Gemma is also able to go above and beyond when discussing the local area with tenants who are re locating.