Biography of Judith Wilson

From maths teacher to successful property investor.

In 1986, maths teacher Judith and her husband Fergus decided they needed to move to a larger family home, more suitable for a family with two teenage daughters. However, just like today, there were warnings that young people would not be able to get on the property ladder. Judith realised that it would make sense to retain the original family house with a view of gifting it to her daughters when they were older.

Judith raised an 85% mortgage and found a tenant. She became aware that the rental income would fall short of the mortgage repayments by about £10 a week. However, instead of despairing that she would have to top up the mortgage payments, she realised that she had secured a second house for just £10 a week.

At around the same time, Judith saw that property prices were rising steeply, a trend that continued for a number of years until recession hit the UK economy. She was always interested in population trends in general, which as a teacher particularly applied to class sizes and the recruitment of new teaching staff. As property prices began to fall, she realised that at a fundamental level, everyone needs a roof over their heads, regardless of the economy.

In 1991, the UK was still in recession and the property market hit rock bottom. Judith started buying properties, mainly at auction. These were properties with protected tenancies, which had the advantage that Judith did not have to go out and find tenants. This was important as she intended to keep the properties as a long-term investment.

In the mid-90’s as the UK came out of recession, those properties increased in value. Judith was able to access the increase in value, and intended to use this equity to buy more properties.

Being local to the area, Judith had noticed that three-bedroom new build houses in Ashford, Kent were cheaper than 100 year old two-bedroom houses in nearby Maidstone, 15 miles away. However, the rental value of both types of houses was the same. Judith was of the opinion that the houses in Ashford were cheaper than they should be, so there was incredible potential for price and capital growth.

To have so many properties, it was important to limit both the time and cost of maintenance. The decision was therefore made to target newer houses, as older houses would entail more maintenance.

As these houses were all under 10 years old, mainly new-build properties, they all had NHBC, double glazing and boiler guarantees. An unforeseen consequence was that these properties attracted more professional tenants.

By the time Judith gave up teaching to focus on property investment, one house for rent had become a dozen properties. Since then, Judith has built a property portfolio of approaching seven hundred properties (Oct 2006), strategically situated in towns along the M20 corridor, and has become Britain’s most successful private Landlady.