Arkles, Anfield

The demand thesis

Before a single property was viewed, the research was complete. Anfield carries one of the most concentrated and repeatable short-stay demand stacks in the UK: nineteen or more Liverpool FC home matchdays a season including European competition, four to six major stadium concerts across the summer, the three days of the Aintree Festival in April, and the wider city events calendar on top.

Football is the compression, not the whole story. Stadium tours bring families all year, and Liverpool draws leisure guests and people visiting friends and relatives every week.

The research produced a clear specification before any property was considered: a three-bedroom house within walking distance of the stadium, presented to capture both the event-night premium and the year-round leisure demand.

Finding the property

A property-monitoring tool tracked the Anfield catchment against that brief. A three-bedroom terrace had been listed at £140,000 and had sat on the market for eight months without a buyer.

A house that has not sold at its asking price for eight months is telling you something. Its real value was below £140,000. A genuine below-market-value purchase is below the real market value, not below an asking price the market has already declined. Two offers were placed, and the second, at £129,000, was accepted in July 2023.

The works

Completion came in November 2023. Conveyancing dragged, and the trades lined up ahead of completion were no longer free by the time the keys were in hand. New trades had to be found, which pushed the launch to March 2024. Today we confirm trades against the actual completion date, not the expected one.

The scope was deliberately focused: plastering to several walls upstairs, painting throughout, new flooring upstairs, a new shower cubicle and a replacement boiler. Samantha furnished it to a boutique short-stay standard.

Capital position

The post-refurbishment valuation came in at £150,000, and a comparable house on the next street sold in 2026 at £160,000.

A short-stay renovation done properly is better presented than almost anything else a valuer walks through in a week: every surface addressed, everything working, furnishings chosen with care. That quality carries into the valuation, and into the guest experience behind the trading figures.

The house was bridged so the works could finish before mortgage assessment, then refinanced onto a buy-to-let mortgage with permission to let on a short-stay basis, interest-only and fixed for five years. Where a property passes the buy-to-let stress test, the rate is materially lower than a dedicated short-stay product. The valuations are more conservative, but for a property where cash flow is the priority, the rate wins.

Trading performance

Arkles launched in March 2024, and 2025 was its first full trading year. Every home we run is an Airbnb Guest Favourite.

Arkles is the most expensive sleeps-five listing in its Anfield competitive set and captures the highest revenue in that market. Software forecasts for this catchment and bed count are materially lower. The gap is the product of design, pricing and guest experience applied every night of the year.

Figures rounded to the nearest pound.

The return

Against the total all-in capital of £160,250, 2025 profit after all costs, including the mortgage, was £24,761, or 15.5%.

The house also carries conventional exits. With comparable evidence at £160,000, it supports a sale or remortgage at any time without depending on its short-stay trading. The short-stay income is the upside the research identified. The property fundamentals are the floor.