A woman has told how she developed a multi-million-pound empire from an idea she thought up in her cramped university bedroom.
Emma Vidler was a student at Cardiff University when she spotted a gap in the market and decided to launch her own student lettings agency; Keylet.
The company has now expanded to become one of the leading property agents in Cardiff.
Emma has used her wealth to take on million-pound projects renovating sprawling estates and mansion houses, transforming them into luxury retreats.
The property tycoon might now live a life of luxury, but Emma's empire all started from more humble beginnings.
She thought up Keylet in 1998 from the bedroom of her student home in Cathays, Cardiff, while worrying about the debt she'd accrued from her MBA business degree.
Inspired by her experience trying to rent in the city, Emma started making the business a reality the day after she submitted her dissertation.
She told WalesOnline: “I’d done a business degree but at the time I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do,
“It’s amazing how the universe shows you a direction eventually. I’m fortunate that doors have opened for me and led onto new things.
“To find a house at the time you knocked doors and met landlords. You just kept an eye out and kept asking – it was hard. You couldn’t imagine that now, could you, with the amount of estate agents around?
"There were one or two agents at the time – we had very few competitors. It was quite obvious there was a clear gap in the market.”
Emma opened her first agency on Salisbury Road in Cardiff — with just half a dozen students helping her.
But things quickly started to take off. Recalling the early days, Emma said: “We were inundated. Groups of friends used to sit in the office for hours waiting for our little yellow bus to come and pick them up and take them around to all of the houses.
"We were open sometimes from nine in the morning until 10 at night and people were still queuing."
She quickly outgrew the small office and expanded to an old printing works down the road, where her student lettings office still is today.
Emma said: "We really were right in the heart of student town and things went from strength to strength.”
In 2008, the business expanded again with new premises in Cardiff Bay. But, as the industry started to get more competitive, Emma had to think outside the box to stay on top, so started to buy and renovate her own properties.
She said: "The business continued to do well for years. But nothing stays the same, does it? As we have said there is an agent on every corner now and I wonder where we’d be if we didn’t decide to diversify into the executive market. You can never afford to be complacent in business.
"Having realised the opportunities that could be had from purchasing and renovating our own properties it seemed the obvious thing to do – and I’m so glad I did it."
One of those renovations includes the Cwrt-Yr-Ala estate — Emma's first high-end purchase, and where she has now lived for 17 years.
The estate stretched over 52 acres and features a pool as well as Emma's listed Georgian-style mansion house.
The single mother of two had "no intention of sharing" it with anyone and bought it to live there with her family, she said: "It reminded me of home in west Wales with the lakes and the scenic views.”
But after separating from the father of her 12-year-old twins, she's now transformed it into a luxury retreat.
She added: “Initially I didn’t think for one minute I’d start renovating and renting barns and carriages out here but at the end of the day these estates need to start making money."
Emma and her team at Keylet renovated the barns, carriages, and an old dairy on the estate, to create six private properties that have hosted film crews with budgets of hundreds of millions, as well as a sheikh.
After realising her passion for renovations, Emma set up Keylet Executive alongside Keylet Student lettings and has been taking on multi-million-pound projects across south Wales.
They include Empire House, where she sold the first £1m apartment in Cardiff Bay, and a £4m Mansion House estate in Chepstow.
She also purchased the 80-acre Tredilion Park and House estate four years ago, which she plans to transform into a boutique hotel inspired by London's Claridge's.
Emma is now focusing on developing the new hotel as well as building 16 luxury apartments above her Cardiff Bay branch.
But despite her expanding success, she said she's always thinking about "what's coming next".
"I’m not sure I’d even consider myself successful. I think if you’re programmed like that it’s almost impossible to get out of. I’ve worked since I was 16, in hospitality before property, and I don’t really know any different," she said.
"Being content isn’t something I’m naturally good at. To be content with your lot is an amazing quality. Since university, it’s just been going from one home to the next.
"I guess I don’t know any better really. My mind is always thinking about what is coming next. I’ve lived by the mantra ‘I’m only as good as my last deal’ for my whole career."
