Real people: how to survive a property crash
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There are thousands of couples in Britain like Phoebe Oliver, 35, and her husband Jamie, 39, who after weighing up their chances of building up a traditional pension pot decided instead to put their life savings into property.
But four years down the line and they are still waiting to find buyers for their first property venture in Brighton, their home city, and like investors across the nation, now find themselves equity rich but cash poor.
The Olivers, who have three children aged between 18 months and 16 years old, decided to get into the property game in late 2006 when they paid £250,000 for a derelict stable block in a small side street on the seafront close to Brighton city centre.
“I had set up a business called Find and Build in 2001 that offers specialist property investment services in the Brighton area and it was going well, so I decided to buy some old stables and convert them into an office for my business,” says Jamie.
“It was 2006 – the property boom was in full swing, finance was easy to come by and prices were rising fast so we felt emboldened by the buoyant economy.”
But by the time they were ready to make their move, business was starting to slow down as the Brighton property market came off the boil, so Jamie decided to redevelop his side-street stable block into four starter homes instead.
