We are passionate about the United Kingdom and its property investment options, and so should you! Job was trained as a medical engineer and is now a full-time entrepreneur. Melanie works as a Pulmonologist-Intensivist with great passion and pleasure in the Intensive Care Unit.
Our real estate journey started in 2017 when Melanie followed a real estate training about investing in Dutch real estate. What made real estate so attractive? On the one hand, exploring something completely different from the medical world. On the other hand, the idea of passive income as an extra income stream and security, perhaps resulting in the possibility of not having to work until we retire? We are huge action takers, so a few months later we became the proud owners of our first rental property in Arnhem, shortly after that a few more followed. During this period we were triggered by a Facebook ad about an event in Amsterdam about investing in the UK. Coincidence you would think? Or does coincidence not exist? The first few days of the event we didn't envision buying real estate in the UK. Two busy jobs, three kids and the fourth on the way… On day 3 we decided to take the plunge. 'We have more to lose if we don't do it than we have to lose if we do' was our thought. We experienced that British real estate has much more potential than Dutch. We established our first two companies: Ciconia Properties Ltd and Ciconia Trading Ltd. Once again within a few weeks we were proud owners of 2 properties in the UK, 1 buy-to-let and 1 flip. By early 2021, our UK portfolio had grown to such an extent that Job decided to quit his job as a Clinical Physicist and focus entirely on UK real estate. We have built a network of trusted partners in the UK. These partners allow us to run different projects in parallel, move in different regions, grow our business and explore new business models. From a few small houses or apartments we went to apartment blocks, residential development projects, operation of a buy-to-let portfolio and serviced accommodation. Almost all of our projects require significant renovation and/or redesign. This enables us to create high-quality homes that are fit for the future while adding significant value at the same time.
