The memory of a positive landlord experience during his own student days is at the heart of Paul Morris’s thriving off-campus accommodation business.

Paul is the Managing Director of Escape Campus which, after being set up in 2016, now rents properties lived in by more than 1000 Lancaster students.

Paul, after graduating in Environmental Science and Chemistry in 2000, worked part-time for his landlord maintaining and managing student properties around the city.

Several years later, he set up his own company with an accent on being a friendly face for students living in Lancaster.

“I always remembered and liked the way our landlord became part of our experience at university, through being personable and likeable” Paul said.

“I want the students living in our houses to look back on it as I did – as a happy experience with friends, with a landlord we got on with, and with people who were helpful.

“Our tenants actually enjoying living in the houses we look after and this is a big thing.”

Paul’s interest in property investment was nurtured by that part-time work after graduation. After joining the Royal Air Force, he used his first pay slip as evidence when securing a mortgage on a rental property in Lancaster. That was in 2002, since when Paul has grown his portfolio, managing houses in the city alongside his work with the RAF and later the police. By 2016, he found himself managing 12 houses – and had a decision to make.

“Doing it alongside my day job was getting too much, so I had to decide whether to give those houses to another agent to manage, or move on from the police and do it on a full-time basis,” he said. “I was in touch with the University with a view to joining their new accreditation scheme as a landlord. When we met, the conversation came round to agents, and they explained they ideally wanted someone who was part of the scheme to look after properties for people who live out of the area.

“I said that, funnily enough, I was looking at becoming an agent. The University came up with a series of points that would define what they wanted from an agent and, following on from those conversations, Escape Campus was born.”

After launching the business in 2016, Paul left the police in 2017 to devote himself full time to the student property field. He was joined by HR expert Vanessa Thackray, who is now Lettings Director, with another Lancaster alumnus, experienced commercial banker, Philip Houghton soon on board as Finance Director.

The Escape Campus team has since grown further in line with a marked increase in properties. “We started with an aim of managing 30 houses. We’re now involved with over 200 properties,” Paul said. “We are responsible for over 1000 tenants, and look after about one in ten of the students who live off campus.”

Paul, 44, said the business is proud to have been the first letting agent to be approved and then recommended by Lancaster University Homes, the official accreditation scheme for student housing in Lancaster. He says Escape Campus only work with properties that meet the high standards the University expects, and pride themselves on the professional service they offer to students and landlords alike.

The business is a member of the UK Association of Letting Agents and the National Residential Landlords Association. Paul says Escape Campus is also committed to putting something back into the student community in the way that inspired him more than two decades ago.

“We employ temporary staff for six months of the year, and so far they are have been students, usually from our current or previous tenants,” he added.

For more information visit http://escapecampus.co.uk/