psst ... someone just bought a buy to let empire

ukcarper

Rinoa wrote: »

Fergus.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/dec/09/fergus-wilson-sells-buy-to-let-property-empire-foreign-consortium-landlord

cells wrote: »

he has walked away with £50m or more

his only mistake was not to have done it in London, in which case he would have probably walked away with 5x as much

I read he has £80m in mortgages to pay off so £170m before tax.

PasturesNew

I hate it when smug and loathesome people appear to come out of sticky situations smelling of roses and reeking of "see how clever I am".

danothy

I recall Crashy being pretty concerned at one point that Fergus had "too many" mortgages. Hopefully they'll both sleep better now knowing this is no longer the case.

chucknorris

PasturesNew wrote: »

I hate it when smug and loathesome people appear to come out of sticky situations smelling of roses and reeking of "see how clever I am".

If Fergus had any sense he would have got a hell of a shock, as at one stage his financial future was looking very dodgy, when he should have already been set up for life.

chucknorris

danothy wrote: »

I recall Crashy being pretty concerned at one point that Fergus had "too many" mortgages. Hopefully they'll both sleep better now knowing this is no longer the case.

Yes you have got to give credit where it is due, Crashy was worrying about poor old Fergus.

ukcarper

chucknorris wrote: »

If Fergus had any sense he would have got a hell of a shock, as at one stage his financial future was looking very dodgy, when he should have already been set up for life.

I must admit I don't know much about him but was in such a dodgy situation, according to article I read he has 900 properties and a outstanding mortgage debt of £80m about £88k per property and I believe most were let.

wymondham

like or loath him, he's done well in business... took risks and now has the benefit...

westernpromise

It's interesting that what some of us predicted as a consequence of Osborne's tax attacks - the corporatisation and offshoring of ownership to new landlords - is already happening. Anyone who imagined these portfolios would all be sold to tenants and cause a price crash they could profit by should feel a chill at this news.

The Wilsons' houses will remain rented, but the landlords will be faceless, the maintenance agent will be via a call centre in Dundee and if any tenant is a pain he'll be chucked out and the place left void because the value's in the capital as much as it's in the income.

MFW_ASAP

PasturesNew wrote: »

I hate it when smug and loathesome people appear to come out of sticky situations smelling of roses and reeking of "see how clever I am".

Stay away from my "Interest Rate Gamble pays off" thread then! :eek: :rotfl:

chucknorris

ukcarper wrote: »

I must admit I don't know much about him but was in such a dodgy situation, according to article I read he has 900 properties and a outstanding mortgage debt of £80m about £88k per property and I believe most were let.

He was in an extremely dodgy situation at one point (around early 2009), there is absolutely no doubt in my mind about that. If the market had continued to fall, and interest rates were not reduced to next to nothing, he would have been in serious trouble. I think his debt was much higher back then, he would have paid quite a bit off since 2009, due to the low interest rates.

But the point is that it was totally unnecessary for the Wilsons to have stuck their neck out so far, they ended up risking everything for additional profit that they probably will not live long enough to spend (certainly in a meaningful way).