'We grew up on a Greater Manchester council estate... now our business will make seven figures'

Phoebe Jobling
·5-min read
Adam (left) and Josh (right) joined forces for a new property venture -Credit:All Construction Developments UK
Adam (left) and Josh (right) joined forces for a new property venture -Credit:All Construction Developments UK


Two brothers who grew up on a council estate in Oldham have opened up on how they built property business set to be worth seven figures. Josh, 29, and Adam, 31, spent their childhood between the Shaw Road estate and the Clarksfield area, having what they described as a 'normal' upbringing.

After leaving school, the pair then ventured off on their own paths, with Josh starting his career as a pot washer in a local restaurant. He worked there for five years, working his way up to become the general manager.

From here he pivoted into becoming a businessman, running multiple successful companies in different sectors from events to customer service. Meanwhile, Adam set up his own construction company, offering a range of services across the north west.

READ MORE: The least to most affordable boroughs to rent in Greater Manchester

But when Josh realised he wanted to build a 'legacy' for his family rather than just own a business, the brothers decided to join forces. After setting up their new property development venture All Construction Developments UK, their current projects in the pipeline are now estimated to make more than £2 million.

"When I left school, I worked as an apprentice at an accountancy firm, but I soon realised that sitting at a desk all day wasn’t for me," Josh, who now lives in Manchester, told the Manchester Evening News. "I then left and got a part-time job as a pot washer at Cibo. Within two or three years, I worked my way up from being a pot washer to one of the general managers.

"At the time, I was also running an events business on the side, and it got to the point where I was making enough money from it so I left there to concentrate on my own business."

The brothers set up ALL Construction UK together -Credit:All Construction Developments UK
The brothers set up ALL Construction UK together -Credit:All Construction Developments UK

It was then when the Covid pandemic struck, which 'wiped' Josh's events business out. "During Covid I then set up a call centre which went quite well, but I ended up being in an office for 14 hours a day more or less six days a week, so again I knew I wanted to do something that wasn’t going to require me to be in the office all the time," he said.

Josh knew he wanted a career that would be long-standing for his family, and so decided to venture into property. "I wanted something that I could build and that I could pass onto my kids when I have them hopefully one day. I wanted to build a legacy rather than just a business," he said.

“Most people who you see with money, it all links back to property. It’s an actual asset in itself so if anything happens you’ve always got the bricks and mortar at the end of the day. It’s always going to be worth something."

Josh then paired with his brother to launch a joint development business where they would flip and deliver residential properties across Greater Manchester. "Adam had a company called All Construction UK and then we started All Construction Developments UK. We started off by trying to learn as we went along, but we ended up losing a bit of money," he admitted.

Adam and Josh with their mentor and successful property developer, Liv Cooke -Credit:All Construction Developments UK
Adam and Josh with their mentor and successful property developer, Liv Cooke -Credit:All Construction Developments UK

Josh had followed Liv Cooke on social media for a number of years - a retired freestyle football world champion who has now become one of the UK’s leading female property developers. She went from holding seven world records, to building a seven-figure property development business.

"I followed Liv on Instagram and she was giving out loads of good property tips. I then saw that she was running her first property mentoring course so I decided to do that," he said. Josh undertook two courses, 'flip' and 'buy, renovate rent', which ran for 10 weeks in total.

"I had a little bit of background knowledge but nothing compared to what I needed to know," Josh said. "Liv taught me how to find the deals, how to analyse the deals, if you’re keeping it for yourself then the next steps to take or if you’re selling it to an investor then she’ll go through how to approach investors, even down to giving a script to help you when you’re on the phone to an investor to win them over.

"I initially started the course to try and find deals for our own company. At the time we were going through buying a house in multiple occupation (HMO). But through doing the course we found out how lucrative it is to do the sourcing for other people as well.

"So rather than it just being us building a property portfolio for ourselves, we then decided to work with investors and start building portfolios for them as well, which also means that our development company has more work."

Since November 2023, Josh and Adam now have nine HMO projects in the pipeline across Tameside and Rochdale, with more than £2 million forecasted in revenue.

"We’re already on site with two and the rest are just going through conveyancing," Josh said. "It’s unbelievable to have that amount of money in the pipeline. Our business has zoomed faster than we ever thought it was going to, we’ve now got our own full team because we have enough work to keep all the lads busy.

"The construction business as well as the development business are both building together. It's nice to work together and have someone you can trust and share the stress with. We're a family unit and we’re working hard for our family."

Speaking about their plans for the next five to 10 years, Josh said: "At the moment we’re doing HMOs which are small conversions, but I want to go into bigger commercial conversions. In the next 20 years hopefully we’ll have a stamp on the Manchester skyline.

"I feel fulfilled day to day in this job. There's always challenges and stress but it’s good stress. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan but that’s what makes it fun."

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