We build, and then we are the landlord

K K Investment Ltd develops building projects and lets residential property. Those two registered activities are not a diversification — they are the same business seen at two points in time.

A developer who sells on completion is finished with a building the day it is signed off. Every decision about specification is therefore a decision about capital cost, and the consequences land on somebody else. We keep what we build, so the consequences land on us.

The practical result is that we specify for the fifteenth year rather than the first, because we expect to still be answering the telephone about the building then.

This is not a claim to build better than anyone else. It is a claim that ownership disciplines the decisions, which is a much smaller and more defensible thing to say.

Two activities

• 01

  Development of building projects

  Bringing sites forward: appraisal, planning, design co-ordination, procurement and construction through to completion. Principally for our own account, so the appraisal has to convince us rather than a buyer.

• 02

  Letting and operating residential property

  Letting and managing the homes we own. We deal with tenants directly rather than through an agent, which makes problems visible while they are still small.

Four questions before we commit

• i

  Will anyone want to live here?

  Not whether it can be consented, but whether it will be a good place to live. Light, outlook, noise, storage and the walk to a bus stop age far better than a kitchen specification does.

• ii

  Does it work on today's numbers?

  Costed at what builders charge this year and let at what tenants pay this year, with a contingency sized to the risk rather than to the answer we wanted. A scheme that only balances on next year's prices is a bet, and we are not in that business.

• iii

  What will it cost to run?

  Heating, maintenance, and the components we will replace twice while we own it. This is the question a sell-on developer never has to answer.

• iv

  Can we manage it properly from here?

  A landlord who cannot reach a building inside an hour is not really managing it. That limits our geography, deliberately.

Sites, and homes to let

If you have a site in south or west London that might suit residential development, or you are looking for somewhere to live, the quickest route is a phone call.