A series of tax measures brought in by the British government has prompted one of the country’s largest buy-to-let landlords to sell their entire property portfolio of 900 houses.
Fergus and Judith Wilson, former maths teachers, plan to sell the properties, all in Ashford, Maidstone and Folkestone in Kent, and realise £250 million.
The sell-off could prompt other investors to offload their properties.
The amount of tax buy-to-let landlords pay is set to rise as part of the regulations introduced by the Chancellor.
In his Summer Budget, George Osborne announced that the cost of mortgage interest may no longer be deducted from rental income when calculating profit on which to pay tax.
In the Autumn Statement, a higher rate of stamp duty for buy-to-let investors was announced. Anyone buying additional residential property, including buy-to-let but also second homes, will have to pay an extra 3 percentage points in stamp duty from April 2016.
The first tranche of 50 properties in Ashford was sold in June to Chinese investors at an average price of £250,000. Most of the properties are being sold with sitting tenants.
The couple began collecting properties in the early 1990s, buying only new-built houses and remortgaging them when prices went up in order to finance new purchases. Their faith was based on their estimation that prices would continue to rise.
Mr Wilson said he became obsessed with buy-to-let but he thinks the boom is “definitely slowing down”.
In 2009 the Wilsons were named as the 34th richest couple in the UK by the Sunday Times Rich List.
