Why Serviced Accommodation Beats Buy to Let | Alex Coghill | PCN #43

Alex Coghill was David's first ever hire. Just over a year after leaving to go out on his own, his serviced accommodation management company, Recharge, looks after close to 90 properties across Scotland, with well over 100 in sight.
If you're weighing up serviced accommodation against buy to let, thinking about rent to SA, or trying to make sense of short-term let licensing in Scotland, this episode is worth your time.
It all started with a rent to SA deal in central Edinburgh that went badly wrong. The sourcer was taking Alex's rent and not paying the landlord, and Alex only found out when the landlord phoned him out of the blue. Just over £10K down, he drove to the landlord's house, agreed to clear a £15K legal bill and kept both flats. Last year the upper flat netted £50K profit on its own.
From there, Alex and David get into how licensing really works council by council, why planning is the real blocker in Glasgow and Edinburgh, how business rates and the Small Business Bonus Scheme work for SA, the team and systems behind 80 to 90% occupancy, and why SA can make three to five times the net cash flow of a buy to let.
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In this episode:
- How David's first ever hire ended up running his own SA management company
- The rent to SA deal in central Edinburgh that left Alex just over £10K down
- How that same deal's upper flat netted £50K profit last year
- Serviced accommodation vs rent to SA, explained simply
- The four short-term let licence types and what a control area means
- Why planning, not licensing, is holding things up in Glasgow and Edinburgh
- Business rates: 70 nights let, 140 available and the Small Business Bonus Scheme
- Why five SAs could net £5K to £8K a month when five buy to lets barely move the needle
- Pricing every gap against three comparables, and why PriceLabs alone isn't enough
- How SA management companies turn Airbnb guests into direct bookings
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:01 Alex, David's first ever hire
02:43 From 6 rent to SA units to nearly 90 in a year
03:50 The Edinburgh rent to SA deal that went wrong
05:00 The phone call that left him £10K down
06:30 Driving to the landlord's house to save the deal
08:28 The flat that netted £50K profit last year
09:41 Why Alex left, and what he learned as the first hire
14:38 How AI is changing degrees and CVs
18:03 Serviced accommodation vs rent to SA, explained
22:18 Why the licensing system helps nobody
24:58 The 4 licence types and control areas
26:05 Why planning is the real blocker in Glasgow and Edinburgh
30:55 Licensing in the Lothians, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde
33:05 What happens if you run without a licence
35:42 Inside Recharge: two shifts and a team in the Philippines
42:01 Pricing every gap by hand, not just PriceLabs
46:56 Party guests, damage and deposits
49:47 SA vs buy to let: the real numbers
53:23 How seasonal is SA, really?
57:11 Business rates and the Small Business Bonus Scheme
59:30 How to get started in SA
1:02:41 Members' questions: the hardest part of SA management
1:04:59 How SA management companies get direct bookings
1:07:10 Would they ever go back to buy to let?
1:09:59 What's next for Recharge