Fiona Lewis

Fiona Lewis
GuestInvest Investor - The Chiswell Street Hotel

Fiona Lewis is a cookery teacher and chef and lives in Islington with two of her children. She has purchased a large category A room at GuestInvest's City property, The Chiswell Street Hotel.

After looking for a residential buy-to-let property for some time, Fiona felt that recent downturns in the market and increased legislation had made such an investment less attractive. She also felt that many of the off-plan residential investments on the market came with strings attached.

Fiona comments, "Many of the residential buy-to-let investments that I had looked into seemed to offer a good deal and an impressive guaranteed yield in the first instance, but then when I looked into the small print I found that the rewards were offset by certain contractual ties - such as purchasing particular furniture packages, or dealing with a particular letting agency."

"GuestInvest seemed to be the only option where there were very few overheads to affect the annual yield."

While the room offers an investment opportunity for Fiona, she also sees it as something of a lifestyle purchase. She plans to move out of London next year, to pursue property development projects across the UK, but will use her hotel room as a base in London to see her family and friends and for business purposes.

Fiona chose to purchase at The Chiswell Street Hotel partly because of the venue, as she caters for many lunches in the City. However, having visited the site she was also impressed by the character of the building and appreciates how hard it can be to find a quality hotel in the area. She believes that the heritage of the site and the potential of the development will stand her in good financial stead when it comes to reaping returns from her investment.

But more than this, Fiona was attracted to GuestInvest by the way that they do business.

She comments, "What I like the most about GuestInvest is the transparency of the product and my dealings with them. With so many investments, the catches have been hidden in the small print. With GuestInvest, all of my questions were answered in full by the sales staff or literature."