The reaction to the success of Judith and Fergus Wilson, arguably Britain’s most successful individual buy-to-let investors, reveals so much about how divisive the issues of property and wealth have become.
The Wilsons’ story is fascinating. The former maths teachers were of a generation (Mr Wilson is now 67) that entirely bought into the merits of owning and investing in property.
They first became investors in 1986 when they moved in Maidstone, Kent, from a three-bedroom semi, bought in 1975 for £8,200, to a six-bedroom house. Noticing gathering momentum in the property market, they decided to hold on to their old house. Another property purchase came soon afterwards, and before long it was, as Mr Wilson admits, an “obsession”.
This week, the couple said they had sold around 900 houses in Kent to a consortium of foreign buyers for £250m.
The couple’s success has always polarised debate: on one side are those who deride their brash opportunism; on the other the couple became a pin-up for investment success, demonstrating bloody-minded determination in the face of two substantial property crashes. Undeterred, they kept going.
Anyone who had once been tempted to invest in property, but faltered, must have harboured at least a sneaking admiration.
The reality is that what the Wilsons achieved is highly unlikely ever to be repeated.
The Chancellor, it seems, is determined to close down property investment to individuals, preferring instead to encourage investment companies to become Britain’s biggest landlords, and then leaning on them to build more homes.
New tax rules being phased in between 2017 and 2020 will see those with buy-to-let mortgages pay more to HMRC. Many landlords will find that a small annual profit becomes a loss.
The changes fall most heavily on those with small mortgages, while a new 3 percentage point stamp duty premium for buy-to-let buyers from April will all but kill the whole thing off for new investors.
The Wilsons in 1986 would never have embarked on this journey with today’s punitive rules in place.
They probably also hadn’t realised how much capital gains tax they would face. At 28pc for higher-rate taxpayers, their bill is likely to be in the tens of millions of pounds.
It should be noted that the couple are not selling because of the tax changes. They began looking for buyers last year in preparation for retirement.
But thousands of others will sell, facing a CGT bill rather than holding on to a loss-making home. This high-profile exit from the market might mark the moment that the mass buy-to-let sell-off began.