Magnate who made £4.5million council houses says he’s not responsible for making people lose out

A millionaire who’s made his fortune buying and selling former council properties has insisted that he doesn’t feel guilty living the high life on his earnings, while the UK struggles with a housing crisis.  

Niven, a 32-year-old property investor from Manchester who is worth £4.5 million and owns 25 properties earning him £27,000 a month, appears in tonight’s Council House Millionaires on Channel 5. 

The professional landlord does up former council houses and flats and has so much money he keep stashes of cash in envelopes, treats himself to  expensive meals, designer sneakers and drives a Ferrari that’s worth more than one of his properties. 

In the 1980s, the introduction of Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme enabled people to buy their council properties at a discounted price, but over time, investors like Niven have bought up the properties cheaply.  

Along with the country’s expanding population, it’s meant that there are more than  one million households on waiting lists for council housing. 

When asked if this sounds fair, Niven said: ‘There’s a lot of winners and losers. I don’t think I’m directly making someone lose out. 

‘I think the councils have lost out, though. I think the councils could have allocated resources better. The amount of money they waste, I just bought a Ferrari on that,’ he said. 

 

Niven bought his first ex-council house aged 20 as an investment, and has been able to use the proceeds from the rent to buy more properties.

Thanks to a team of handymen, he’s renovated the properties in order to rent them out at a higher rate than the mortgages. 

The landlord bought the ‘bachelor pad’ he lives in four years ago, and said that he lives the ‘high life,’ driving a Range Rover and a brand new Ferrari. 

He admitted to blowing his tenants’ rent on pairs of £400 designer sneakers, expensive clothes and nights out as soon as he collects it. 

‘But then I look at my schedule and the next rent is due in a few days,’ he explained. 

In some parts of the country, the waiting list for council housing is ten years long, and the situation is not eased by private landlords buying more and more former local authority properties for profit. 

‘It kinda worked in my favour, the council not being able to provide houses for everyone,’ Niven said. 

When asked whether the shortage of council housing is partly due to private landlords like him, he agreed that they system is flawed. 

‘I do buy the council properties up, but should they be for sale in the first place if there’s such a demand?’ he said. ‘But I don’t control their policy.’ 

The professional landlord rents the houses to individual tenants rather than families, because it is more profitable, and calls his rentals ‘cash machines.’ 

Visiting one of his flats that needed repair after being left in a bad state by a former tenant, he instructed one of the contractors he works with to install a digital lock on the door so that he could add £20 to the rent.  

‘When this is fully rented I’ll get £2,500 and then every month I’ll get maybe £1,500 and then we go to the next house and that’s how you grow the business. We’ll just get it cracked and get on to it,’ he said. 

According to the Channel 5 show, 40 percent of council properties in the UK are now owned by private landlords. It also claims that local authorities in England sold 11,000 homes to private landlords in the last 12 months.  

Council House Millionaires airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.