What started as a tired forgotten empty penthouse became one of Manchester’s most distinctive homes. 2-bed Lexington is located in the middle of famous Village area of the City Centre opposite Canal St and had original 1999 kitchen, the décor dated, had a roof leak and the owner hadn’t lived there for over a year. It was a Direct-to-Vendor deal that began with a simple letter drop. Mike, having lived in the same building, sent DTV letters out to everyone in the area. Only one person replied and it was the one. He paid the full asking price of £265,000 in cash, it would have gone a lot more on if it had been on Right Move.
Renovations kicked off in August 2022. The vision: industrial Manchester character with modern luxury. Phase one introduced striking exposed brick slips in the lounge to give exposed brickwork, a new contemporary kitchen, and a bespoke living wall, bold, natural, and completely unique.
Phase two (Jan 2023) was where things got complicated. The goal was to add an en-suite downstairs but with all waste services upstairs and with an agreement with the Freeholder to do it within his demise only, the job was far from simple. The pipework had to snake around corners and penetrate thick concrete floors. A commercial grade macerator to pump waste up a floor was the solution along with a very complicated pipe run. Building regulations demanded mechanical extraction. The solution? A duct that snaked through floors and walls powered by a commercial-grade turbo fan, pulling air 4 meters to the main bathroom above. Quite simply the most complicated bathroom Mike has ever put in, it was closer to commercial services work than just a bathroom due to the complexity of the building restrictions.
The £32,000 project delivered a show-stopping transformation. From its exposed brick slip textures to its ingenious layout, the Lexington now stands as the building’s statement flat and is one of the most unique flats in Manchester! How many other flats can you sit on the sofa watching the clouds go past?
Mike initially lived in it for 2 years but it was rented for 20 months (2024-26) achieving a record breaking £2,250pcm in rent per month and the profit from this went towards Mike’s Digital Nomad Lifestyle!
A unique penthouse flat, of course, gets the best tenants who want to pay for a unique home.
