Anne’s the strongest link in property profit game
ANNE ROBINSON is certainly not the Weakest Link when it comes to property investing – she’s just sold her London house for ten times what she paid for it.
She has sold the three-bedroom South Kensington property she paid £500,000 for in 1993 for £5million and has snapped up a flat nearer to Hyde Park to walk her dogs, no doubt saving thousands into the bargain due to the stamp duty holiday.
The canny host of hit quiz show The Weakest Link also has a barn in Gloucestershire, two flats in New York and five other investment properties after starting her ascent up the property ladder 40 years ago.
‘When I was married in the Eighties [to John Penrose], we moved about ten times,’ Anne, 76, tells me. ‘When I was on This Is Your
Life they had my removal man on! I have always looked at properties and thought, “Is that a good buy?” “Will it wash its face” is the expression they use. Will it make money and maintain itself.
‘Twenty years ago, television brought rich rewards. I was doing The Weakest Link on both sides of the Atlantic. Property is how I chose to invest what I earned.’
Anne even had the temerity to cross Margaret Thatcher on the subject of property. ‘She once said to me at a drinks party, “Buy a big house when you get married and then you will never have to move.” I said, “Well, actually Prime Minister, not everyone can afford a big house when they get married. She just turned with her laser eyes on me and said, “I bet you’ve made some money out of houses while I have been in office.” And I had.’