Sue Lambert

Office Manager

Sue has always worked in administrative roles including performing arts, catering and the construction industries. Prior to joining Hamilton Paige, she also worked as an assistant for the buyers of a construction company ordering all materials for site and also worked for a property crowd funding company.

She has a lot of experience in managing time sensitive tasks in the construction and finance industry and brings this experience to Hamilton Paige to enable quick turnaround on projects.

Interests & Hobbies
Sue is a proud mum of four grown up children who are making their own way in the world. Sue enjoys musical theatre, walking and learning new things when she can find the time as she also helps her daughter who runs her own dance school.

Shumon Alom

Acquisitions & Developments

Shumon graduated from university with degrees in Economics and Maths and is a trained accountant. With five years’ experience in the construction sector working in accounting, he has also acted in an advisory role to build two successful start-up companies.

Shumon’s entrepreneurial and career experience, has given him the impetus to build his own successful property portfolio of residential properties in London.

Shumon is passionate about business and personal development and works within our East London Acquisitions team. Seeking exciting new refurbishment and development opportunities – plots of land, derelict properties, commercial buildings and office blocks are examples of his acquisitions.

Interests & Hobbies
Outside of property he enjoys travelling, good food, football, cycling and spending quality time with his friends and family.

Youssef Boutayeb

Marketing & PR

After graduating with Business & Commercial Law degrees and a Masters in Marketing Management, Youssef became a specialist in marketing strategy. He has 15 years’ experience working in the private sector and has created innovative marketing strategies for brands such as Sony, BMG, BBC and O2.

Youssef heads our marketing team, using his skills in Innovation to develop unique strategies and collaboration programmes, with the company’s network of property sellers, intermediaries and investors.

With his relationship building skills, he is truly passionate about people and brings a wonderful community spirit to his work.

Interests & Hobbies
Outside of marketing Youssef enjoys learning about different cultures, Yoga, DJing and volunteering in the community.

Thor Portess

Director
Thor started in property at the age of 19 in Australia, buying agricultural land which he funded from working in a silver mine. He moved to the UK in 2005 and worked in the UK construction industry for 5 years, then started buying and selling property in 2010 after the global financial crisis.

Thor also co-founded a finance platform which, during his involvement up to Dec 2019, raised £9m in private investor funds for other property developers’ projects.

Interests & Hobbies
Thor’s painful experience of seeing his parents having to sell half their farm in 1989, when interest rates spiralled out of control, was a valuable lesson in finance and is part of the inspiration for creating Hamilton Paige.

Outside of property, Thor enjoys spending time with his wife Julia. They enjoy travelling, socialising with friends and being outdoors.

Jane Bayler

Acquisitions & Developments

After graduating from Goldsmiths College, University of London, Jane spent fifteen years working in business development, sales and marketing for a variety of media and entertainment groups in London. She was recruited as MD of a TV design company (Futurebrand English & Pockett) which, after several years of profitable growth, had met some struggles that Jane was recruited to solve. After she turned the company around again, it was sold to a large US communications’ group (Interpublic).

Jane works in acquisitions, seeking properties for development and refurbishment. Her great interpersonal skills and experience of working in demanding environments, enables her to work closely with our clients, whatever their background. She takes utmost care to deliver win/win solutions to all parties involved.

Interests & Hobbies
Jane has extended and renovated her own family’s Grade 2 listed modernist house in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. Outside of property, she loves Pilates, relaxing with a good book, travelling and having fun with friends and family.

Sachin Vekaria

Finance & Project Management

Sachin has nearly 20 years of experience in investment banking, principally in finance, valuations and project management. He is a strong believer in the company’s ethos of utilising expertise in Integrity – Trust – Innovation.

He believes that clear communication and relationship building is AS important as technical expertise, for creating success through maximising value and opportunity for clients, as well as end users.

Interests & Hobbies
Sachin’s interests range from mountain trekking – the higher the better – to snowboarding and golf – a useful 12 handicapper. He advocates the benefits of meditation in promoting ethical values and decision-making and he is also an avid supporter of a home for abandoned children in Nepal.

Chalfont St Giles – Buckinghamshire – 2020

A farmer and his wife with a house and farm land in Buckinghamshire, had lost one of their jobs and fallen into mortgage arrears. On top of this, they had a 10-year interest only mortgage which had expired and they had not paid it off. The mortgage lender had commenced repossession proceedings. This caused a lot of undue stress to the couple, and it was very difficult for them to know the steps to their required solution.

Our job at Hamilton Paige, was to remove the confusion and stress from a complicated, unsettling situation and help our clients remedy their difficulties. They had a disused farm paddock beside the house which had planning potential for three new houses. Using our experience, we negotiated with the mortgage lender to stop the repossession if the arrears were paid off. We also reached agreement with the mortgage lender to extend the mortgage term by 24 months. This would buy time for planning permission to be obtained on the farm paddock.

We paid off the mortgage arrears for the owners and planning permission was obtained for 3 houses which will be valued at circa £1.75 million each. The uplift in value to the farmer and his wife from the planning gain alone is circa £600,000. At the time of writing, they are now downsizing to a smaller house. The development of the new houses is about to commence and assuming all goes to plan, the farmer and his wife will benefit further from a profit share arrangement when the new houses are sold.

Lewisham – London – 2016

The property seller had lost her job, had mortgage arrears and was confused about what to do. She borrowed £30,000 from two rogue property traders who required the loan to be paid back in 6 months with £30,000 on top (so £60,000 in total). They had also exchanged a contract to buy her house for half price if the £60,000 wasn’t paid back. The seller thought there were no other options and proceeded in the hope that she would be able to repay the loan and keep her house.

The rogue property traders had used a legally binding contract which meant that if the equivalent of double the loan wasn’t paid back, they could force the sale to purchase the house for literally half price. We collaborated with the seller and employed a specialist property lawyer & barrister to defend her in court.

We were able to settle with the rogue property traders and repay their loan plus an agreed amount of interest that both parties were happy with. Next, we funded the refurbishment of the house, which was then sold. The seller made £170,000 more profit from the sale, and she downsized and invested some of her profits in other projects with Hamilton Paige as an investor.

Denham – Buckinghamshire – 2015

The property seller was looking to downsize as his children had grown up and moved out. He wanted to maximise the sales value in order to pay off the remaining mortgage and free up funds to downsize to a smaller home.

The seller was introduced to Hamilton Paige via his lawyer who prepared the contracts for a fixed profit share arrangement. We arranged the required funding and managed one of our builders to carry out a loft conversion and full refurbishment of the property. This was a hands off and hassle free service for the seller.

The seller made more profit via the fixed profit share development than he would have if he sold the property in its original condition. As anticipated, Hamilton Paige was able to assist the seller successfully; he paid off his mortgage and downsized to the smaller property which was bought with cash.

Chesham – South Buckinghamshire – 2020

The sellers obtained planning permission to build a 2nd house on their garden side plot, without realising that a very old restrictive covenant on the title at HM Land Registry, prevented the construction of another dwelling on the property.

We agreed a price for the house which was sold on day one and a separate price for the side plot, which was subject to the removal of the covenant. After a lengthy Land Registry tribunal process, we successfully had the restrictive covenant so that the 2nd house could be built. The seller was paid for the side plot upon removal of the restrictive covenant.

Hamilton Paige collaborated successfully with investors to buy the property. a specialist property lawyer to deal with the Land Registry Tribunal and one of our builders who upon writing this, is currently building the new house. This has resulted in a win/win situation for all involved.

Tottenham – London – 2015

The seller used to live in the property with her family. She moved out after divorcing her husband and rented the house to tenants. The tenants unfortunately grew cannabis in the property and damaged it to the extent that it couldn’t be rented. Due to bad memories associated with the property which led to discontentment for the seller, it was left vacant for a number of years.

The seller was introduced to Hamilton Paige via an intermediary who realized that the seller needed help to deal with her property.

Hamilton Paige firstly agreed a fixed price profit share sale with the seller, then arranged builders – together with the required funding – to refurbish and develop the property. The property was refurbished and sold as planned. The seller was very happy to see her property brought back to life so that another family could make it their home. She was also very satisfied to finally help her children onto the property ladder in other areas.

Kensington – London – 2010

A health professional used to work from her flat in Kensington and a change in work situation meant she could no longer work from the property. She was a busy person with running her business and didn’t want the hassle of renting or managing her property. This was in 2010 after the global financial crisis and the seller was not prepared to sell at the going market value.

The seller was introduced to Hamilton Paige via an intermediary property professional who knew that the situation required an innovative company to solve the problem for the seller. The Hamilton Paige team realised that the seller wanted a higher price for the property than the market was prepared to offer at the time but didn’t want the hassle involved with renting.

Hamilton Paige found an overseas buyer who could afford the monthly payments to buy a property and could put down a large deposit, but they were unable to obtain a mortgage in the UK at the time. We arranged a rent-to-buy sale whereby the buyer exchanged contracts to buy with a large deposit and then paid monthly instalments to the seller calculated on the outstanding balance. The buyer completed after 4 years at a sale price higher than the seller would have achieved in 2010.

Leytonstone – London – 2015

The seller became the primary carer for his wife after she became ill with cancer. He lost his income and his financial situation spiraled out of control due to borrowing money and maxing out his credit cards. One of his credit card holders filed for bankruptcy against the seller and he was made bankrupt, causing a huge amount of turmoil to our client.

To assist the seller, we liaised with the trustees in bankruptcy on the seller’s behalf and agreed to pay off the creditors. We also helped the seller through a formal court process which resulted in reversing his bankruptcy which is called a bankruptcy annulment. We then arranged funding for the development of the house. Upon the house being sold, the seller was able to downsize and buy a house abroad to retire to when he reaches retirement age.

Hamilton Paige found an overseas buyer who could afford the monthly payments to buy a property and could put down a large deposit, but they were unable to obtain a mortgage in the UK at the time. We arranged a rent-to-buy sale whereby the buyer exchanged contracts to buy with a large deposit and then paid monthly instalments to the seller calculated on the outstanding balance. The buyer completed after 4 years at a sale price higher than the seller would have achieved in 2010.

Simple Three Step Process

Receive Offer

• Fill in the REQUEST YOUR OFFER form or call us to arrange a viewing of your property
• We find out from you about your situation, carry out due diligence, & research your area
• We view your property, discuss potential options with you then make you an offer based on your preferred option (see “3 Ways to Sell Your Property” below)

Exchange Contracts

• You instruct a solicitor as do we (we offer to pay your legal fees if you use a lawyer from our panel)
• Solicitors carry out searches & conveyancing & prepare contracts
• Contracts exchanged & completion date set to suit you (some funds may be released to you prior to completion)

Complete Sale

• You or any other property occupants arrange to move out prior to completion
• Funds may be released to you prior to completion to help you move to your next property
• Balance of sale proceeds sent to you upon completion