I have a friend who likes to think he deals with new business ideas and he told me I should start up an estate agents primarily dealing with Forces in the Midlands area as a lot of them like to rent or often buy in the area and end up selling up and moving on every 3 years or so. I just laughed in his face and said don't be ridic.
Is this idea as bad as i think it is? and how much would i need to get it off the ground?
i would swerve this idea....
most forces live in barracks,
married live in the pads estate (houses owned by mod rented to married couples)
most would not be
1. not be able to afford private rent
2.not be able to afford to buy.
3.could not be bothered to buy if they could afford it.
4.preffer to live around /be with other army couples/family's.
only my opinion from experience.
I did swerve the idea but more due to property market as opposed to the forces. Disagree with a fair bit of what you said.
My dad did 26 yrs in the Army, in the 16 yrs he was in we always had a house and rented it out whilst living on the patch. When i was in i had a house which i lived in, now I'm out i live on the patch with my missus and rent a house.
Living on the patch at £200 a month including council tax, people should be able to afford to knock a deposit together imo.
I lived in a place called Branston dubbed Raf Branston due to the amount of forces who live there (about 80% forces personnel), its not like the old days when people pissed their wages up the wall. I see young people joining up and renting/buying straight away instead of living the block life.
Some people undoubtedly will enjoy living and getting involved with other couples etc majority i know certainly don't.
Certainly was different back in the day but there has been a massive change in mind set. This could just be the RAF, Lincs or my trade in particular. (i was in intelligence don't you know) But who knows.
Only from my experience of course. The fact remains it was a shit idea and glad i didn't see it through. Especially since Eso put figures to the thoughts. Yikes! Will keep my office job and continue to keep my eyes open for opportunities.
FWIW from an ex infantryman of 23 years and settled within a large Garrison area:
Times have changed and without the current markets being what they are, there may be a little merit in the idea tbh.
I'll use the Scottish Infantry as an example.
Until the last round of amalgamations we had individual regiments, all based in different areas and would move approx every 3 years.
The amalgamtion produced one large Royal Regiment of Scotland, divided into 5 regular Battallions (1-5 Scots)
Each Battallion is now permanantly based (Edinburgh, Penicuik, Inverness, Fallingbostel and Canterbury) These units will not move from these garrisons, however individual soldiers can elect to cross post from one to another.
Young soldiers, on the whole, are more savvy than us old school "get paid, piss it up within the first weekend and be skint for the remainder of the month" types.
Young people now recognise the importance of getting onto the property market as early as possible. I live in an area where there are 3 barracks occupied by 1 Scots, 2 Scots and 3rd Rifles. Whilst each barracks has an allocated "patch" of married quarters I have many neighbours from these regiments who have felt it better to purchase or rent properties in the surrounding area.
I would imagine it may be the same in other Garrison areas.
When the markets do pick up again, I would imagine it may well be profitable to chase the military buyers/renters, however wouldn't rely solely on this as a business plan.
Geo
Author