Buy-to-let tycoon Fergus Wilson: 'I sold 50 Ashford semis to a Chinese estate agent'
06-10-2015
Fergus Wilson, the original 'buy-to-let king' with 1,000 Kent properties, has sold 50 of them to a Chinese buyer who will sell them on to other investors – also based in China
Controversial landlords Fergus and Judith Wilson say they have tenants on benefits that are £800,000 in arrears
Landlords Fergus and Judith Wilson claimed they had tenants on benefits that are £800,000 in arrears Photo: Christopher Pledger
By Richard Dyson
Controversial landlords Fergus and Judith Wilson have sold 100 homes in Ashford, Kent, as they begin to unwind their vast buy-to-let portfolio.
But Mr Wilson – who first told Telegraph Money in September 2014 that Chinese investors were among the interested buyers – has now confirmed that one China-based investor bought 50 of the properties.
The buyer plans to sell them on to other, China-based buy-to-let investors, Mr Wilson said.
"He's selling them on in China on an individual bases," Mr Wilson said of the buyer. "I believe he had the other owners back in China already lined up."
The properties went for an average of £250,000. Most were already tenanted. Mr Wilson said he dealt with the buyer with the help of an interpreter.
"There are a lot of wealthy Chinese who want property in London," Mr Wilson said. "There isn't enough supply in London, so they're buying somewhere within striking distance.
"What you will have is a lot of investors in China each owning a small piece of Ashford in Kent."
Mr Wilson said this buyer was the biggest "so far". Others bought in multiples of five or 10.
"Most were Chinese or Indian," he said, adding that most were not resident in Britain.
He confirmed that a number of British institutional investors, such as pension funds, had looked at the properties but had not yet bought.
The Wilsons have attracted controversy not only because of the size of their portfolio – estimated to be worth £250m – but because of their dominance of the local property market.
Almost all their properties are two and three-bedroom homes built since the 1990s and located in Ashford.
Mr Wilson's outspoken remarks about tenants in receipt of benefit sparked further furore.
"It's a tremendous responsibility," Mr Wilson said of his plans to sell the portfolio. "If I put everything on the market at once prices would fall and millions would be wiped off local properties. I also have the tenants to think of."
In his late sixties, Mr Wilson wants to sell up and retire. "If I dropped dead, my wife would be horrified to have the responsibility of looking after these properties and the tenants," he said.
Asked what he would do with his fortune – even after his huge capital gains tax bill he is expected to end up with £100m – he told Telegraph Money: "We will look at various options. We're not going to buy strings of Rolls-Royces or race horses.
"We might buy one or two farms in Norfolk or Suffolk."