[london bear]

The Wilsons appear in the Sunday Times rich list at £75m for their 460 odd starter homes in Ashford, an average of about 160K per house. Looks like they forgot to take into account their goliath mortgages!

Does anyone know how much debt they have? Must be at least £65m given their tactic was to pyramid up their portfolio by mortaging to the max.

Does anyone know how they are doing right now? I have seen very little media exposure for them since they appeared on "How I became a property millionaire". On that show I recall that they were clearing "only" around £240K a year on rent less mortgages before the rate rises. After the 1.25% of rate rises we have seen so far, assuming £65m of mortgages their mortgage payments must have gone up by around £800K pa, giving them a net cashflow of NEGATIVE £560K pa. Even if they had put up their rents by 5% which I doubt they could have, assuming an optimistic rental yield of 6%pa they would still be NEGATIVE £340K pa or so.

Ouch. No wonder they have gone quiet!

[rockdoctor]

To be fair, the Wilsons were probably capable of working out that they should flog a few (or a lot) of the 460 properties. The reason they have gone quiet I would guess, is that they are busy doing just that.

If they are careful to sell the worst performing (or if they were smart enough to have done it near the peak) they will be quids in.

As long as the bulk of the portfolio was bought a few years ago, they probably have positive equity, and can exit property gracefully.

460 houses gives you a lot of options, even if the market is falling fast.

[london bear]

rockdoctor, on Apr 4 2005, 12:34 PM, said:

To be fair, the Wilsons were probably capable of working out that they should flog a few (or a lot) of the 460 properties. The reason they have gone quiet I would guess, is that they are busy doing just that.

If they are careful to sell the worst performing (or if they were smart enough to have done it near the peak) they will be quids in.

As long as the bulk of the portfolio was bought a few years ago, they probably have positive equity, and can exit property gracefully.

460 houses gives you a lot of options, even if the market is falling fast.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Their pyramid strategy probably means that they bought a large chunk of of their properties near the peak (I remember them gleefully announcing that they bought 70 houses on the day of the last interest rate cut).

Also if they kept their LTV at a constant 85% throughout all they need is a 15% fall to go from property squillionnaire to negative equity.

[AteMoose]

london bear, on Apr 4 2005, 02:14 PM, said:

Their pyramid strategy probably means that they bought a large chunk of of their properties near the peak (I remember them gleefully announcing that they bought 70 houses on the day of the last interest rate cut).

Also if they kept their LTV at a constant 85% throughout all they need is a 15% fall to go from property squillionnaire to negative equity.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Mmmmm Gearing.....

[OnlyMe]

Do the Sunday Times realise there are two sides to a balance sheet? What a laugh.

If I remember correctly I'm sure some sort of quote form the Wilsons about being happy with a net yield of £5/£10 a propery per week from the ones that they were buying. Highly geared - certainly sounds like it!

[right_freds_dead]

so they are only really worth £10 million.,?

so is £10 million ALL you need to be in the 'sunday times rich list' ?

thats a really poor country when you look at it in actual money (not paper money).
this points out that the whole economic lending bubble is askew. how many other so called rich people are on the list who are worth a fraction of whats stated ?

paper money.


countrys a sham.

[ʎqɐqɹǝʞɐɥs]

Who actually reads these 'rich lists' and what pleasure do you get from reading them? Personally I have never looked at one since I was a wee lad when my parents used to buy the Sunday Times. I find the whole idea and the thought of people reading them obnoxious and nauseating. I really couldnt care how much person x has all I care about is owning an above average house that reflects my above average salary with my, err, above average gf.

[Saving For a Space Ship]

shakerbaby, on Apr 4 2005, 04:33 PM, said:

Who actually reads these 'rich lists' and what pleasure do you get from reading them? Personally I have never looked at one since I was a wee lad when my parents used to buy the Sunday Times. I find the whole idea and the thought of people reading them obnoxious and nauseating. I really couldnt care how much person x has all I care about is owning an above average house that reflects my above average salary with my, err, above average gf.       

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I also find it totally sickening. These lists perpetuates the 'it could be me' fantasy many greedy blind folks have. How someone with that much money can walk past those people with so little & not question their own greed / insecurity or addiction to money accumulation is disgusting.

The methodology needs investigating, maybe worth firing a letter off to the press complaints commission Re: the Wilson's suggested wealth vs debts figures.