25-05-2025
‘I gambled my divorce settlement to flip properties. Now I have a £3m business'
When Alexandra Fidoe split from her husband in 2019, she found herself left with two children, nowhere to live and a £100,000 divorce settlement.
'Friends and acquaintances said: 'You're going to buy a house with this money, aren't you?',' she says – and that might have been the obvious thing to do. Instead, Fidoe defied expectations and invested the money in flipping property.
For Fidoe, the prospect of buying 'a tiny house for me and the two kids [then aged 5 and 8]' and returning to a corporate marketing job didn't appeal. 'I thought, 'I'm going to make this money work for me',' she says. Back then, she couldn't have imagined she would soon be spending her time converting a Victorian abattoir into flats.
Her decision caused some consternation at the time. 'It was ballsy, and people do go bankrupt in the development world,' she says, but she'd seen the money that can be made from property. 'I've never been given any money from my parents, but my ex-husband and I had been quite savvy with the house we'd bought,' she says. Her £100,000 payout was equity from the house sale.
Fidoe had left her corporate marketing job in the food industry the previous year to be around for her children more, and had been project managing a renovation her parents had invested in (their first, too) as a way to dip her toe in the world of property.
'They paid me a small salary for being a project manager; it was a massive learning curve,' she says. The house they had bought, in cash, was a three-bedroom 1930s semi-detached house in Hinckley, Leicestershire, where Fidoe lived.
Not only had the property belonged to a hoarder, which created its own challenges, and the project was delayed by six months waiting for building work to begin. 'It was overwhelming,' says Fidoe. 'I was chasing builders around the village in my car, asking why they weren't working on my site.'
In the end, the project was a success, and the house went to over-the-asking-price bids, netting her parents a £40,000 profit from a 61pc increase in value. But there wasn't much time to celebrate.
'My experience in the corporate world gave me confidence'
'One reason we bought that first house was because of the house next door. That was a two-up, two-down which was owned by the council, and the lady who lived there had been sectioned,' she explains. Having spotted this opportunity, Fidoe helped her parents move quickly when this house became available, and managed to buy it off-market.
'I had experience coming from the corporate world, and that gave me some extra confidence when it came to negotiating.'
It was while Fidoe was working on this build that she split from her husband.
'I was all over the place,' she says. 'I had the children 90pc of the time. It felt risky not to have a fixed salary.'
Despite being offered a position for a corporate marketing job with Weetabix, which came with a company car, pension and good salary, she decided against returning to her previous career.
'This was a turning point,' Fidoe says. 'If I took this job, I'd have to get a nanny – and I liked the flexibility and freedom the project management work gave me. I could do the school run and balance being a mum without the guilt.'
Instead, Fidoe decided to throw herself into project development, this time using her own money.
First, she rented a Grade II-listed farmhouse and negotiated a discounted rent of £1,000 a month on the understanding that she'd help project manage the property's extensive renovations while living there.
'The landlord said he'd put the rent up when the renovation was done, but he didn't; instead, he said we could stay there as long as we wanted as we were good tenants.
'It works well for me… I'm on my own and getting a residential mortgage isn't easy. It was still the smartest thing to do,' she says.
With her family settled in a rental, Fidoe decided what to do with her money. She wanted to invest in Hinckley, as this was the area she'd grown up in and knew. Her tactic was to look for the worst houses on the best streets.
'I did my homework… I bought a bungalow, and that was the most distressed house I did up. I bought it in the winter months, when you always get a good deal, and that was the one I made the most profit on – £60,000.'
The building work lasted three months, and the result was impressive. 'There were people pushing their phone numbers through my door – there was huge demand for a done-up bungalow on a good road, as so many people were downsizing,' she says. The bungalow sold quickly, having increased in value by 68pc.
'I was able to pay myself a salary and put the money I'd got from this into my next project,' she says.
'It wasn't all plain sailing...'
But it hasn't always been smooth sailing. Last year, Fidoe took on another three-bed bungalow in Hinckley, hoping to recreate the success of her previous projects. 'We did the renovation very quickly – in 20 weeks – and had lots of interest, but people needed to sell big houses [to buy it], and that wasn't happening…. The market was tough,' she says.
Fidoe was struggling to pay the £2,000-a-month bridging loan while all her money was tied up in a property that wasn't shifting. It eventually went under offer after she changed estate agents, but the experience made her change tack.
'I [realised] I needed properties with multiple exit strategies… I now don't have all my money tied up in one project. I've diversified,' she says. When the bungalow did sell, Fidoe achieved a 70pc increase in value.
'I'm making money – while creating something for people to enjoy'
In a bid to diversify, Fidoe used a combination of cash and buy-to-let mortgages to buy and do up two flats, and instead of flipping them, she's renting them out.
Now, she's developing the unlisted Victorian abattoir next door, which she bid on and secured before it went to auction. The plan is to use bridging finance to develop it into one two-bedroom and three one-bedroom flats, which will have a value of £80,000-£90,000 each, and which she will rent out.
Once developed, she will replace the expensive bridging finance with cheaper buy-to-let mortgages. 'The abattoir has so much history connected to it; it's on a cobbled street.
'I get so much satisfaction from doing something up. Yes, I'm making money, but I'm also creating something for people to enjoy.'
Fidoe, who documents her property flipping progress on Instagram @alex_fidoe_property, estimates the turnover from all her flips comes to around £3m and, once the flats and abattoir are completed, she will have a property portfolio worth £550,000.
'It was a gamble, and I wasn't always confident it was the right decision… There are times when I feel like 'Oh my god, I can't believe I'm doing this',' she says. 'The kids [now 11 and 14] often see the project from the start and say: 'I can't believe you bought this place', but then they see it at the end and say they want to move in.'
Her experience has also given her a love of property. 'Lots of people out there say 'I want to be a developer because it's loads of money', but there's a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes. Now I've got a real passion for it.'
Reflecting on the past few years, Fidoe says that, as well as providing her with the initial £100,000 capital, her divorce gave her the mindset to think about property development. 'When you go through a divorce, you reevaluate everything,' she says.
'That first property was a kind of escape for me. Being uncomfortable is how you grow.'
