Building a Property Business After 25 Years in Corporate Life

9 July 2026

People have a habit of assuming that a long career at a well-known company is the goal. That making it to a senior title, earning a good salary, and collecting a decent pension is what success looks like.

For most of my career, I assumed the same thing.

I spent 25 years in corporate retail — mainly at Currys, where I ended up as eCommerce Director for 5 years. The last chapter of my corporate career was as Head of Digital & Technology Transformation at Marks and Spencer. It was a role I worked hard for and genuinely valued. M&S is an iconic British business, and being part of its digital transformation was something I am proud of. The people were exceptional. The work was meaningful. The salary was comfortable.

But somewhere around year 23 or 24, a question started becoming harder to ignore.

I was building something significant — just not for myself.

That's not a criticism of corporate life. It is just an honest observation about what employment is. You bring your ideas, your energy, your expertise — and in return you get security, compensation, and the satisfaction of the work itself. Which is a fair deal. But it is not the same as building equity. It is not the same as building something that compounds over time, that you can pass on, that works for you rather than the other way around.

The longer I sat with that thought, the harder it became to un-see it. When your career hits an unexpected turn of events and you find yourself at a junction you didn't expect, do you carry on driving, or do you stop, take stock, and look around? The chat with my wife on the sofa that night was a sliding doors moment.

Why Property?

I had always been interested in property. I spent two decades analysing customer behaviour, market trends, and data patterns in retail — and when I started looking at the UK property market through the same lens, I saw something that felt significant.

Not buy-to-let in the traditional sense. The landlord model has been squeezed hard over the past decade — regulation, mortgage rate changes, Section 24 tax changes. The old playbook has real headwinds.

But serviced accommodation — SA — was a different story.

Corporate clients. Project teams. Infrastructure workers. Contractors on long placements who need somewhere professional, flexible, and fully-managed. This segment of the market was growing steadily, was underserved in certain geographies, and demanded a standard of operation that most landlords simply were not equipped to deliver.

It was a gap that suited someone with a background in operations, brand management, and digital strategy rather more than it suited a traditional landlord.

The question was not whether the opportunity was real. The question was whether I was willing to go after it.

The Bedford Decision

Location matters enormously in SA. You need consistent corporate demand, decent transport links, and — ideally — something driving that demand at scale for years to come.

Bedford ticked every box.

It sits at the intersection of several major infrastructure projects: East West Rail connecting it to London and Oxford, the Luton Airport expansion, and a significant construction and infrastructure investment wave across South and Central Bedfordshire. All of that means contractor teams. And contractor teams need accommodation.

But there was something else. Something that, when I first looked at it, felt almost too good.

Universal United Kingdom Resort is opening in 2031, a few miles south of Bedford — one of the largest entertainment investments in British history.

The accommodation market around that development will change permanently. Leisure demand will layer on top of the corporate demand that already exists. The window to build a portfolio and a brand ahead of that opening is open right now — and it will not be open forever.

That was the moment I stopped analysing and started acting.

What I Actually Did

I took my education seriously and joined a property academy — this is a massive industry with lots to learn, and from a standing start, I knew I didn't have time to learn alone. I built the foundations carefully — studying the SA market, understanding the legal and regulatory framework, and identifying the right business structure before taking on a single property.

PVTL Stays launched as the trading name of PVTL Property Ltd, part of PVTL Group Holdings. The business model centres on three things: rent-to-rent lease management, SA management for other landlords, and our own property acquisitions. I'm also creating a SSAS pension that gives me a vehicle for commercial property investment alongside the SA portfolio.

Today, PVTL Stays manages 40+ beds across Bedford and South Bedfordshire. Our clients are 95% corporate — contractor teams, project managers, infrastructure workers on long-term placements. Occupancy sits consistently above the local market average. We hold Airbnb Superhost status and are 5-star rated on Google.

I run it solo. That was a deliberate choice. The corporate world is full of large teams and in-decision. I wanted to prove — to myself as much as anyone — that a well-operated, technology-enabled SA business could be built lean and fast without the overhead.

The thing I miss least about corporate life is the meetings. The thing I value most about this life is that the decisions are mine.

What I Have Learned

Leaving a 25-year career is not as dramatic as it sounds when you have a clear plan. The harder part is the psychological shift — from someone who measures success by title and salary to someone who measures it by portfolio growth and net asset value.

That shift takes longer than you expect. There are days when the uncertainty is loud. There are also days when you book three new corporate clients in a week and realise that the uncertainty is the price of ownership, and ownership is what you came for.

I have also learned that the skills I built in corporate retail transfer directly. Data analysis. Brand management. Supplier negotiation. Digital marketing. Customer experience. Automation through technology. Every one of those disciplines is as relevant in SA as it was in retail — sometimes more so, because in a solo operation you cannot delegate them.

If You Are Thinking About Making a Similar Move

I am not here to tell anyone that property is the answer to every career question. It is not for everyone, and SA in particular demands a level of operational rigour and customer focus that not every property investor is comfortable with.

But if you are sitting in a senior role somewhere, doing excellent work, and quietly wondering whether the ceiling you can see is the one you actually want — then I would say this: the question is worth taking seriously.

The window in Bedford is open. The corporate demand is real. The Universal United Kingdom Resort angle is not speculation — it is planning permission and ground works and a 2031 opening date.

I made the decision. I am not looking back.