Student HMO refurb · Stoke Student Quarter (Ed Dovison's second build with HYPE)

An existing student HMO in Stoke Student Quarter, a few doors down from the College Road campus at Staffordshire University. On paper the location was perfect. In practice, the property had fallen out of favour with the student tenant pool, it had become a little jaded.

This is the moment every HMO portfolio owner has to face honestly: properties become dated and lose their appeal. What was in vogue ten years ago doesn't cut it in today's market. Once upon a time, shared bathrooms were more than acceptable for student tenancies. Now, students expect en-suites, and the HMOs that don't offer them lose share to the ones that do.

The owner, Ed Dovison, knew exactly what needed doing. He'd already done his first student HMO refurb with HYPE next door.

Eight-week refurbishment programme. Internal layout adjusted to support en-suites where the floor plan allowed (some shared bathroom configurations stayed where the room geometry didn't support an en-suite cleanly). Modern finish throughout, flooring, plaster, decoration, fixtures, fittings all stepped up to today's student-rental standard.

Notable detail covered in the final HypeTV video: HMO fire regulations for open-plan kitchens. If you're putting an open-plan kitchen in a student HMO, the licensing and fire-safety configuration changes materially, it's not the same as a closed-off kitchen, and the build needs the right strategy from the front. Worth watching if you're considering a similar refurb on your own HMO.

Tired student HMO to current-spec student HMO. The refurbishment paid back instantly: four Staffs Uni students snapped the property up before it was even on the market properly. The repeat-investor model with Ed Dovison is now two properties deep: same firm, same playbook, same tenant outcome, two consecutive properties. That's the kind of compounding relationship that makes student HMO portfolio work commercially scalable.