Is this the same guy who runs three no hopers in the championship races at Cheltenham??
For sale: Britain's biggest buy-to-let empire
Fergus and Judith Wilson, the king and queen of buy-to-let who bought hundreds of homes in the property boom, have put their entire portfolio on the market
Buy-to-let-empire builders: Fergus and Judith Wilson. Photograph: Martin Godwin/Martin Godwin
Fergus and Judith Wilson were the pin-ups of the property investing world; the king and queen of Britain's buy-to-let boom with 900 homes in their portfolio. But others saw it differently – they were avaricious monsters denying homes to first-time buyers and representing everything that was wrong about Britain's fantasy get rich quick economy. Now, the south London former maths teachers, who during the boom snapped up dozens of homes a day, are seeking a buyer for what is a diminished portfolio of property, mostly around Kent.
Victims of Britain's Ponzi-like property system will cheer their demise. Today's economic woes can be traced, for the most part, to excessive lending, mortgage securitisation, financial leverage and debt accumulation. The Wilsons represented all of this, and by the bucketload. But don't cheer too much; they won't be signing on for housing benefit any time soon. Their portfolio of properties is understood to have a price tag of £180m, with around £45m of debt against it. Of course, they still have to find a buyer for what is a collection of mostly two- and three-bed homes, and in today's market that won't be easy. But if they do they should make it into the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune in excess of £100m.
The Wilsons have been saved by a decline in the residential property market that has been much less severe than many commentators, myself included, forecast. They were also canny in their choice of investments: they bought low-price suburban starter homes with gardens – demand for which remains relatively firm – rather than overpriced city-centre "luxury" flats – where demand has all but collapsed.
They were never in the tawdriest end of the buy-to-let market, where bogus 15% "discounts" were used to qualify for 85% buy-to-let loans which were in reality 100% of the real price. That was the world of "property clubs" that drove the last few years of the British property frenzy to such unsustainable heights.
Last December Fergus Wilson put a £250m value on the portfolio, so since then he has either sold quite a few or marked them down in price. But it appears he has also paid down part of the mortgage debt owing on the properties. Maybe the Wilsons will be the buy-to-let merchants who got away with it. Other "investors" in this market are suffering from falling rents, longer voids, unemployed tenants unable to pay bills and lenders no longer willing to throw money at the sector.
On a personal level the Wilsons are charming. They look and sound like, well, maths teachers, not Van Hoogstratens. If they were evil landlords then we would have heard from their tenants, but we have not. But that does not take away from the fact that buy-to-let, in the form it took between 2004 and 2007, was one of the more insane aspects of the property market.
It was truly shameful how lenders preferred to award huge sums of money, sometimes with the slightest of checks, to "investors", some of whom were downright crooks, rather than concentrate on their traditional market. The easy money for buy-to-let came from "wholesale borrowing" and was subsequently packaged into "securities" and sold on as triple-A quality mortgage books. And it was despicable how the government did nothing to halt the mushrooming buy-to-let market but instead encouraged it with tax breaks.
The extraordinary volume of lending given to buy-to-let merchants pushed up property prices for everyone else. First-time buyers were either squeezed out or took on massive loans to compete against buy-to-let buyers, which they now truly regret. And the taxpayer is still caring for the lenders who were most aggressive in this area, such as Bradford & Bingley and Halifax.
That the Wilsons are now hoping to sell their entire portfolio says a lot about what "professional" investors think of the market. Maybe it is because the Wilsons simply wish to retire. Or maybe they believe the game is up for property investing. Today, Knight Frank is forecasting that house prices will fall by 2%-3% in 2010 after their modest recovery in recent months.
Don't bet against the Wilsons. They made a lot of money on the way up, and have lost only some of it on the way down. In the racing world they are regarded as eccentric enthusiasts, but their horse Cerium, a 500-1 rank outsider, romped home fifth in the Grand National this year. When they say it's time to sell, it's a compelling signal that falls in the property market are a long way from being over.
For sale: Britain's biggest buy-to-let empire
Fergus and Judith Wilson, the king and queen of buy-to-let who bought hundreds of homes in the property boom, have put their entire portfolio on the market
Fergus and Judith Wilson were the pin-ups of the property investing world; the king and queen of Britain's buy-to-let boom with 900 homes in their portfolio. But others saw it differently – they were avaricious monsters denying homes to first-time buyers and representing everything that was wrong about Britain's fantasy get rich quick economy. Now, the south London former maths teachers, who during the boom snapped up dozens of homes a day, are seeking a buyer for what is a diminished portfolio of property, mostly around Kent.
Victims of Britain's Ponzi-like property system will cheer their demise. Today's economic woes can be traced, for the most part, to excessive lending, mortgage securitisation, financial leverage and debt accumulation. The Wilsons represented all of this, and by the bucketload. But don't cheer too much; they won't be signing on for housing benefit any time soon. Their portfolio of properties is understood to have a price tag of £180m, with around £45m of debt against it. Of course, they still have to find a buyer for what is a collection of mostly two- and three-bed homes, and in today's market that won't be easy. But if they do they should make it into the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune in excess of £100m.
The Wilsons have been saved by a decline in the residential property market that has been much less severe than many commentators, myself included, forecast. They were also canny in their choice of investments: they bought low-price suburban starter homes with gardens – demand for which remains relatively firm – rather than overpriced city-centre "luxury" flats – where demand has all but collapsed.
They were never in the tawdriest end of the buy-to-let market, where bogus 15% "discounts" were used to qualify for 85% buy-to-let loans which were in reality 100% of the real price. That was the world of "property clubs" that drove the last few years of the British property frenzy to such unsustainable heights.
Last December Fergus Wilson put a £250m value on the portfolio, so since then he has either sold quite a few or marked them down in price. But it appears he has also paid down part of the mortgage debt owing on the properties. Maybe the Wilsons will be the buy-to-let merchants who got away with it. Other "investors" in this market are suffering from falling rents, longer voids, unemployed tenants unable to pay bills and lenders no longer willing to throw money at the sector.
On a personal level the Wilsons are charming. They look and sound like, well, maths teachers, not Van Hoogstratens. If they were evil landlords then we would have heard from their tenants, but we have not. But that does not take away from the fact that buy-to-let, in the form it took between 2004 and 2007, was one of the more insane aspects of the property market.
It was truly shameful how lenders preferred to award huge sums of money, sometimes with the slightest of checks, to "investors", some of whom were downright crooks, rather than concentrate on their traditional market. The easy money for buy-to-let came from "wholesale borrowing" and was subsequently packaged into "securities" and sold on as triple-A quality mortgage books. And it was despicable how the government did nothing to halt the mushrooming buy-to-let market but instead encouraged it with tax breaks.
The extraordinary volume of lending given to buy-to-let merchants pushed up property prices for everyone else. First-time buyers were either squeezed out or took on massive loans to compete against buy-to-let buyers, which they now truly regret. And the taxpayer is still caring for the lenders who were most aggressive in this area, such as Bradford & Bingley and Halifax.
That the Wilsons are now hoping to sell their entire portfolio says a lot about what "professional" investors think of the market. Maybe it is because the Wilsons simply wish to retire. Or maybe they believe the game is up for property investing. Today, Knight Frank is forecasting that house prices will fall by 2%-3% in 2010 after their modest recovery in recent months.
Don't bet against the Wilsons. They made a lot of money on the way up, and have lost only some of it on the way down. In the racing world they are regarded as eccentric enthusiasts, but their horse Cerium, a 500-1 rank outsider, romped home fifth in the Grand National this year. When they say it's time to sell, it's a compelling signal that falls in the property market are a long way from being over.
