TWIN brothers have told how they used to be labourers on a building site – but now own a £12m property empire.
Tom and Jack Atha were just two normal lads from Middlesbrough who saw a staggering rise after becoming involved in student property.
The siblings admit to making mistakes on the way, but have pulled through to create a multi-million pound business – despite dropping out of Uni.
Tom admits it was a "culture shock" for the pair going from living in a caravan to being successful businessmen.
He told Teesside Live: "We knew that if we wanted to make it in this industry, we’d need to get our hands dirty and learn as much about all of the construction trades as possible.
"So that’s what we did! We started off in 2010 living in a caravan on a friend's construction site and worked as labourers for their tradesmen.
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"It’s safe to say it was a bit of a culture shock for two lads who didn’t know what end of a hammer to hold but we were determined to succeed so we got on with it learnt the basics of turning an outbuilding into a house.
"That was our first step on the property ladder and it was up to us to carve out a business from there."
The first step for the twins was a £70k family investment to purchase a townhouse in Middlesbrough.
It became their first buy-to-let property after they completed the renovation.
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Other townhouse investments and luxury residential builds in Teesside soon followed as the brothers built their empire.
They have since focused largely on student accommodation, and opened their flagship St James Studios in Middlesbrough by September 2018.
Work has since begun on another big student halls project elsewhere in the town.
Jack said they are keen to give back to their local community.
He said: "It’s taken years of trial and error, and also a great deal of graft, to get to this point. We’re big believers in helping the local community and we know property development is an area of high interest for lots of people.
"We’ve seen the prices people charge for Property Development courses too! If anyone wanted to ask us more details about our journey or any advice on investments/developments, we’re always happy to help! We’re grateful to have had a helping hand in the early days by securing family investment.
"If we can help others in any way at all, we’d love to offer that helping hand in return."
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