Christian Rodwell is joined by Alex Norian (IWN Accountancy) and Ben Lansdown (IWN Analytics) to discuss the changing landscape for UK property investors and landlords. They cover key challenges in property portfolio management, recent regulatory shifts, and the growing importance of data-driven decision-making. Alex and Ben introduce “Landlord Pulse,” a new analytics platform built for landlords, and share how it helps both new and seasoned investors optimise performance and profitability with real-time insights.
In this episode, Christian Rodwell welcomes Alex Norian (founder of IWN Accountancy) and Ben Lansdown (Director of Analytics, IWN Analytics) to discuss the evolving landscape for UK property investors and landlords.
They explore the challenges of property portfolio management, regulatory changes, and how landlords can use data-driven tools to optimise performance and profitability.
Alex and Ben introduce “Landlord Pulse,” a new analytics platform designed specifically for landlords, and explain how it empowers both new and experienced investors to make smarter decisions with real-time insights.
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Speaker 1 (00:00.034)
It's much harder to be a successful accidental landlord. The margins are much tighter. You've got to be creative with a strategy. And there's also a lot of noise. It's hard to work out what the right strategy of prophecy should be.
And so if you're not on it, if you're not focusing in and seeing it in real time, that can become an issue. As soon as you open up Landlord Pulse, you'll be shown a range of KPIs from your income expense, operating expenses, right down to property level. So you can see which properties are operating at a profit, which operating at a loss, and you can focus your efforts into.
It's about having that data in an easily digestible, meaningful format so it's presented so that you can make the right decision specifically for landlords. It distills what is the important things they should be focusing their attention on.
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Wealth Talk. My name is Christian Rodwell, the membership director for Wealth Builders. And today I am joined by Alex Norian and Ben Lansdowne from IWN Analytics. And Alex is a good friend of Wealth Builders. He has an accounting company and he's brought Ben in to develop a brand new digital dashboard, which will pull in all the data about your property portfolio. So if you have investment properties at the moment,
perhaps you're managing all of your data on spreadsheets or you pulling it in from lots of different sources, then you're going to really enjoy listening to the guys explain the new Landlord Pulse dashboard that they have created, why it's so powerful and how it can help you to generate a greater profit from your portfolio. So before I introduce the guys, I just want to let you know that Kevin and myself are running a free Wealth Masterclass next Tuesday, the 8th of July.
Speaker 2 (01:42.582)
And there'll be two sessions, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. And you can join whichever one suits you best. It's completely free and you can register by heading to wealthbuilders.co.uk forward slash masterclass. And on that masterclass, we are actually going to be diving into 20 different ways that you can start to build recurring income streams into your life right now. So they won't all be applicable for you, but some of them definitely will.
So if you're currently relying on a single source of income, whether that's from your job or from your business, and you want to diversify, then please do register. Join us. It's going to be an interactive session. It's going to be fun. You can ask us questions and you're going to walk away with lots and lots of great knowledge. Okay. So remember head to wealthbuilders.co.uk forward slash masterclass to register right now. So it's time to introduce today's guests, Alex Nourian and Ben Lansdowne.
Alex and Ben, a very warm welcome to Wealth Talk today. How are you?
Very good. Thanks, Christian.
Thanks for us.
Speaker 2 (02:44.59)
Alex, you're a good friend of Wealthbuilders. I know some of our members are also your clients. Just give us a bit of background to your company before we bring Ben into the conversation.
Sure. I founded a company called IWN accountancy four years ago now. And yeah, a blessing it's been. Lots of trials, tribulations, lots of growth, team of 12 of us, I think it is now. yeah, it's been sort of pretty sustainable and steady growth the last few years. And we've generally helped landlords to maximize and protect their wealth and compliant tax efficient. But I've always had a thought where, and Ben and I, we met two or three years ago, maybe now.
I've always thought that yes, we can help clients to be as tax efficient as possible, keep more of what they're earning. We can help them to be compliant so they can sleep at night. But there's that third piece of the jigsaw, which is helping them to, you know, earn more in the first place, helping them to optimize the performance of their business. And so with that in mind, we set up a new company recently called IWN Analytics in the group. And that's where Ben has come in as director of analytics to help us to build out that new arm of the business.
So super excited about it. And yeah, we've got an interesting platform to talk to you about.
So Ben, where did Alex pull you away from?
Speaker 3 (03:56.822)
My career has been varied really. A lot of it has been public sector. So I've worked in local councils and with the Ministry of Defense. Then most recently with Deloitte as a senior manager and their consulting arm there. And my career has really been around data-driven decision-making in finance teams. So helping CFOs, senior civil servants, senior military officers who don't necessarily have a financial background, make sense of the numbers and drive their decisions in that way.
Alex, I suppose in the world of property, a lot of people stumble into being property investors and they don't have any business experience. They don't necessarily know how to optimize. Is that a big problem that you notice and part of the reason why you've obviously developed this?
Yeah, no, exactly. mean, there's the kind of day-to-day streamlining of the finance function, getting your bookkeeping automated, making sure you have a cloud-based accounting system, and all that kind of thing that landlords, I think, have been bit slower to adopt than other sectors, perhaps. But yes, we help clients to do that, to get their finance operation as slick as possible. But there's also a massive disconnect between having, let's say, a limited company for a property investment company, having their statutory accounts.
and actually being able to interpret what it means in the context of making meaningful decisions in the year. So there's a few reasons why that's problematic. One, the accounts are prepared for HMRC and Companies House. They're not necessarily giving you the metrics that you need to be able to assess the degree to which your portfolio is successful. Is it meeting your objectives? Is it doing well versus the market generally? Historically, is there good or bad patterns you should be aware of in the year to make the right decisions?
And so it's a translation issue where the accounts, statutory accounts for companies house and HMRC don't necessarily mean much to a landlord. They're in weird jargon. there's also a timing issue where you're not getting it regular enough to be able to make the decision in the year. Does that make sense? So that's really what we've set out to address.
Speaker 2 (05:58.478)
Yeah, I think I've heard you say before that it's harder to be an accidental landlord now. You really have to treat this professionally. I mean, just putting you on the spot, Alex, just remind our listeners, some of the changes that have come into effect over the last few years with property investors that have made it harder to generate.
profit. Gosh, yeah. mean, there's so much red tape. There's so much extra regulation. There's so much tax changes. I mean, we can go, we can take a look at Section 24 mortgage interest. George Osborne introduced that. That made it much more difficult to run commercially viable property portfolios in your own name, especially if you're highly geared. If you've got high loan to value across your portfolio, that becomes really problematic. It's like the number one cost for Limeolds, and yet you couldn't claim it as a tax deductible expense.
And then we could go like legally speaking, there's been section 21, there's been stamp duty rising, you know, you've now got an extra 5 % on the additional dwelling supplement. it's essentially, that is the right way I think to put it, it's much harder to be a successful accidental landlord. Interest rates, the fact that they've moved, you know, 20 years ago, you could just, you know, chuck a deposit into a buy to leave it alone. And, know, the risk of that not cash flowing well, it's pretty low. You know, it will, it will cash flow fine. But now, you know, the margins are much tighter.
You've got to be creative with a strategy. And there's also a lot of noise. So it's just, it's hard to work out what the right strategy of property should be. It's hard to work out what the right structure for your business should be. And it's hard to manage that in terms of your systems and your finances on an ongoing basis. so, yeah, you have to be more professional and intentional in your approach. That's essentially what we're trying to help people to do, isn't it, Ben?
Yeah, you covered a lot there, a lot there, but yes, it's much harder, isn't it? You know, you can even think of like the cost of living crisis as well. If you've got tenants in who might be struggling to pay the rent, then it could be a cashflow issue, could be a profitability issue. And so if you're not on it, if you're not focusing in and seeing it in real time, that can become an issue.
Speaker 2 (07:54.158)
A lot of people probably still managing things on spreadsheets, right? So just looking at numbers and haven't got that visual aspect or having to pull lots of different pieces of data from different places. So tell us a bit more about Landlord Pulse. you know, when you log in, you know, what are you going to be presented with? How easy is this to use and who can get access to it as well?
Yeah, I mean, I could take the lead on that one. So as soon as you open up Landlord Pulse, you'll be shown a range of KPIs from your income expense, operating expenses, right down to property level. So you can see which properties are operating at a profit, which are operating at a loss, and you can focus your efforts into that. Everyone can get access to it. We can give it to anyone if you want the product, but it's not only the financial information, which you'll get, you'll get specific
property KPIs as well, like return on investment, like yields, like percentage occupied, for instance, of your properties. So we've tried to build in lots of different aspects that we think property portfolio owners will see as valuable and present it in a way which is easy to understand to help focus the efforts and focus the decisions to be made in those places.
And where's the data actually coming from? Are we feeding that in ourselves? Is it coming from the accountant side, market data being pulled in from somewhere? Yes.
So we've got it coming straight from Xero. So if you're using Xero as an accounting software, but we could do exactly the same with QuickBooks or any other accounting software to pull the data in for your financials. And we do have aspects in there which compare to the market. And this is coming from Rightmove, Zoopla on the market. And so you can see average rental prices for similar properties in a similar area and also average asking prices. So you can start to compare.
Speaker 3 (09:43.038)
yields which you're receiving on your properties to similar properties in that area if you were to look at the market rates at that point in time.
So if you've got any user cases from some of the test clients, perhaps, where you might have been unaware of certain aspects and they've suddenly seen it visually in front of them, there's some quick changes that they can make.
Just a quick one on the, you have the accounting software that's got all the data in it, but it's about having that data in an easily digestible, meaningful format. So it's presented so that you can make the right decision. You know, it's like the sea of data is too much. And so what the dashboard does is it just specifically for landlords, it distills what is the important things they should be focusing their attention on. And then that goes to, you know, we could think of a scenario where we could say, okay, well, across these 40 properties in a portfolio that a client had, you know, they're
above average in terms of gross yield versus the local postcode that they are. So we can get that snapshot. But the net yield seems problematic. That's below the average. So we can say, okay, why is that? And then we can drill down directly into the relevant costs and see what problem that was in what month for which property super quickly. It enables you to just drill down into the underlying data very quickly. So you wouldn't have got that from Xero or QuickBooks or Sage. You wouldn't have had that.
ability to interpret the data in that way. And there's a few other things like being able to measure as landlords, you you hope your property cash flows, but also you're really focused on medium term, long term capital growth. And that's why we can use leverage, we can borrow money and increase our exposure to capital growth over the long term. So we need to think about that in the context of our investments. So we have metrics that go, okay, so, you know, the property has increased X amount since purchase. so that's
Speaker 1 (11:30.158)
5 % per year return there. The profit has been this. And so we can add those two together and get our total ROI. And so we can start to look at what's the benefit of leverage, of using debt, and how have our investments truly performed? So once you have that information, you can make reliable decisions because you can say, yes, this property isn't cash flowing very well. Maybe it's not that profitable, but it's done really good on capital growth. I can see that. I've got that little snapshot. You can order them. You can rank them see how they're getting on in that sense.
As well as if you weren't so concerned with them, what if I sold this property? What would I have net left after taxes and all that kind of thing? So you've got all of that, you know, on one dashboard, haven't you?
And is this focused more on properties that someone has already purchased or can it assist in some way with the research to see if a property is good for purchasing?
Yeah, think the market data really helps with that. So we've got maps, which you can zoom into and street view. So if you imagine you're trying to look for a property to potentially buy, could look, you could go to that individual property on a street, street view it, but then also see similar properties in that area to see what the rental yield will be. So no longer would you need to be scouring Zoopla or Rightmove or on the market.
see that stuff, you get it all in one place. Zoom in, see where you want to go, see what prices they are, see what the rental yields are, see what the access is like, see what the property looks like, all in one place.
Speaker 2 (12:57.108)
Is this aimed at a particular type of property investor, someone who's right at the beginning, maybe has one or two properties? Would it be suitable for them?
think it's useful to different landlords at different stages for different reasons. For example, if you had a large property portfolio, it's quite difficult to keep on track on a property by property basis as to what's doing great, what's not doing so well. It's very difficult to spot the patterns which you need to either repeat or try and reverse. And so this will help those landlords to organize what is a larger portfolio.
And then when we think about clients like five or less properties, it's really helping them to make the right decisions in terms of deals for prospective deals that are showing themselves. I don't know what else you might add to that then.
Yeah, I think that it will be a common assumption that this would just be for larger landlords, but actually you want to start as you mean to go on, right? You want to be able to plan and manage your finances from day one. And then that sets you up with lots of good behaviors. So then as you scale and as you grow, you've already got those behaviors. already know how to delve into the data and how it's going to help you grow as a business.
I know obviously this is still early stages. Have you looked at like pricing model subscriptions? How are you approaching the cost of this for an investor?
Speaker 1 (14:17.462)
So we're looking at an upfront cost to get it set up. And then we're looking at an ongoing subscription model. And for that, because we're looking at what we're going to include in that subscription as well. there's obviously, you know, the power of building out communities and groups. And ultimately we've got already a large set of landlord clients in our accounting business. So we want to be able to help those people and create a community where people are more sort of growth focused. People are helping each other to do deals and they're helping each other to be successful.
whatever their definition of that is. And we want to play a key role in that. So that's the ongoing subscription is the product itself, but we want it to be more than that. We want it to be a real experience that helps people to make their investment into property as successful as it can be, essentially.
Yeah. And for that reason, you're giving people the opportunity to book a demo with you, aren't you? Obviously, no cost to that, to view the platform and see if it's the right fit for them. We'll put a link in the show notes. So if you're listening now and you think this sounds really good, then absolutely click on that link right now and get booked in with the guys. They'll show you around and you're talking about community. actually just tell us, know, what can people expect on that demo? you know, walk us through what will happen.
me, think that's essential for people. If you're interested in any way, come and have a look because it's actually quite difficult as an event to explain. The reason why this is powerful is because of how it's presented. As I said, most of the data will be present in your accounting software already. The fact that it's in there, we know from our experience, that doesn't mean that landlords are able to interpret it and make the correct decision in the year. That's the most important thing they're trying to achieve. It's being able to see the dashboard.
And was, would go, yeah, right. That, yeah. So that is highlighting that I need to pay attention to that specific metric because it's not in line with market or it's worse than it was last year, or it's not in line with the budget or, so it's really sort of like focusing the brain to like, okay, what should I really be changing or repeating, et cetera, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:20.182)
Anything to add to that, Ben?
Like I say, know, the way which I've done these things in the past and who I've presented these things in the past are people who are really good operationally, but data as we become in a more sort of data centric world, it grows and it's really hard to understand. So having something which pulls all of that together and an easy to understand way to focus your efforts is really, really important and really beneficial.
I've seen the platform you showed me Alex, and it really does blow you away. So if you're listening now and you're an investor, I would absolutely get booked in. There's absolutely nothing to lose by having a chat with you both about this. yeah, mean, look, anything else that you'd like to add just as a general kind of note for property investors and where you see things heading over the next few years,
tax perspective. Let's go from taxes where I suppose I'd know the most. Yeah, I'll be honest, I'm not overly bullish on the outlook. Obviously, we've got the autumn statement again. though there's not many concrete rumors yet, will no doubt start circulating. for me, I don't think it's going to be any positive changes and there may be more negative changes for landlords, which I hate to say that because it would be as optimistic as possible. But the thing is there is always opportunity. really, the degree to which we have control
Okay, we have control over the way in which we structure portfolios. You have control over how we manage them on an ongoing basis. Part of that's finance and accounting. And you need to make sure you have the right people in your corner to, you you need to have a good accountant. You need to have good brokers. You need to just really lean on the professional. This where you need to treat it as if it's a profession. You know, really important that happens. Cause there's just so many pitfalls. There's so many ways that it can go wrong if it's not done properly.
Speaker 1 (18:02.754)
Ultimately, I'm still bullish on property as an investment. The UK property market is solid. Demand is huge. There's obviously undersupply. As far as I'm concerned, it's great investment. You don't get leverage in other investments like you do with property. SaaS Pensions, as in the webinar I did this morning with Kevin, SaaS Pensions for investing into property, it's solid. It needs to be done in the right way.
As with everything that we talk about and teacher wealth builders, it's about being diversified, trying to have as many multiple income streams. if property is your thing, then look at how you can diversify within property and the tools that you guys now bring in to your clients are going to give people a head start on that for sure.
Kevin had a good insight in fact about ROI, relationships, opportunities and ideas. And I think it's right, you build connections and you have advisors and you have colleagues and other people in the sector and everything like that. You have those relationships, opportunities to present themselves, you come up with ideas. And this is not dissimilar. know, someone watches this podcast, maybe books in some time with us, we can build a relationship and we can look at what opportunities there are. The nice thing about this Ben is that we're still, we built it from scratch, haven't we?
know, and it's iterating as we go. We're building it for landlords. So if we encourage people to come and check it out and let us know how they think it could be better and we can build that in.
That's a really good point. Sometimes when you're working with a smaller company rather than a massive company, then you've got that personal relationship and you can really help to make that the best product possible and you can act quickly and really get that feedback from your clients. So yeah, well, I'm excited to see where this goes, guys. And I'm sure in the coming months and years, we will hear further updates as you continue to build on this and I'm sure expand into new areas as well. Thanks so much for being a great guest today, guys.
Speaker 3 (19:48.92)
Thank you.
Pleasure, thanks for having us.
Speaker 3 (19:54.03)
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