Kentish Express Ashford & District
Property tycoons setting up exclusive business club
Property tycoons Fergus and Judith Wilson may be selling off their 1,000-home empire but they cannot help dipping into the market.
Mr Wilson – who reportedly was buying a house a day in the early 2000s – admitted he is still buying houses and bought one as recently as last week.
Yet the buy-to-let millionaire revealed he has got plans for when he finally sells his Ashford and Maidstone-based property portfolio – which it is expected will net him more than £100m.
The former maths teacher is setting up a business club for wealthy individuals.
Members of the Maidstone High Flyers Business Club will need to run organisations which turn over at least £5m a year or be likely to achieve the figure in the near future.
The invitation-only sessions will take place once a month and cost £50 each to attend.
Each meeting will have a guest speaker, with Mr Wilson saying he hopes to get sporting figures like Sir Geoff Hurst to entertain.
Many of the members will be property entrepreneurs but there will also be representatives from banks, solicitors and other services.
Mr Wilson, who l i ves i n Boughton Monchelsea, Maidstone, was speaking after he was seen walking around the Kent 2020 Start Up Live exhibition at Kent Showground, Detling, last week.
He said: “My wife and I have been involved in lots of business clubs.
“They are basically networking clubs.
“It will cost £50 for the lunch and the speakers and if they turn up and don’t get £50 of business out of it, then they shouldn’t be coming.”
Mr Wilson courted controversy last year when he announced he would no longer let to people on housing benefit and served eviction notices to about 200 tenants. He also claimed he preferred Eastern European tenants because they were better at paying rent.
He was also found guilty in the same year of assaulting estate agent Dan Wells after punching him into a window display of an office in Folkestone.