Irish inspiration from a property entrepreneur
Ailish Singlehurst started a residential property business 30 years ago, when she was 44 years old. She is now a landlady of a property portfolio in London and Luton. The diversity of her portfolio spreads risk and provides long-term capital growth opportunities as well as ongoing rental income.
Historically they were her properties were rented to students, and it was a full time occupation, with Ailish taking phone calls from students 24/7 and often responding herself. In recent years, she has worked with a young man who was setting up a housing project for ex-offenders supported by the government. Initially she leased him 84 bedrooms. He went on to develop it further himself and the project has now grown, with 90 staff caring for hundreds of ex-offenders. Ailish says, ‘This is a win-win for both of us. I receive a reduced rent and am hands off, and he carries all the responsibilities for the properties. I have been thrilled to provide this social housing for ex-offenders and watch them being rehabilitated and back into the community and work. I occasionally employ some of these guys and they are always so appreciative at been given a home and a second chance.’
One ex-offender, who Ailish employed to help with painting and plastering, texted her to say ‘These last few weeks have made a huge difference to me. I’d like to thank you sincerely and let you know that you are such a kind lady with a really big heart. You’ve given others a chance and helped them as well.’
Ailish grew up in the fifties in inner-city Limerick in Ireland, which was plagued by poverty and the impact of emigration. ‘Looking back at my childhood I can see I always had the skill of making money.’
She sold raffle tickets when she was just eight years old. ‘I loved the buzz I got each time I got paid my commission.’ Before and after school, she did a milk round, a paper round, and collected groceries for elderly folk in her street .
‘Neighbours always knew to call on me if they needed a little job done.’
She left school at 18 with few qualifications and went to Dublin for her first office job. In the evenings she sold encyclopaedias door to door and became the top sales person.
‘I managed to save for a passport and money to travel across Europe on and off for the next three years. This was where I met God and eventually joined a missionary organisation called Youth With A Mission (YWAM) at the age of 21.’
There Ailish met her husband Laurence and they had three children together.
When she was 35 she did psychometric test that revealed her deepest motivations. Ailish’s test results were ‘one of the most interesting they’d seen for years because my motivation was to make money’. The analyst told her, ‘Whatever you do lady, one day you must go into business’.
In the early eighties, Laurence, Ailish and their family settled in Harpenden with YWAM. Alongside being a mum, Ailish started procurement for YWAM and got a contract from Marks and Spencer and the Co-op to collect and distribute their unsold food, which Ailish distributed daily amongst the missionaries on the YWAM base. She raised over £1 million pounds worth of food through this endeavour.
‘This all helped in developing my administration, financial and organisational skills - using the talents God had given me. I very much enjoyed the responsibilities I had in YWAM but at 45 we began to consider our future. On our missionary income of £16,000 ‘living by faith’, we could not afford to make any pension contributions. I had always been interested in property and began researching our locality and found that property prices in Luton, six miles from our home, were a third of Harpenden prices. I also found that it had a buoyant student market and I became very familiar with the local estate agents there who were extremely helpful. But with our low income, no bank would lend me money on a buy to let.’
Ailish held onto her dream and when the buy to let scheme was introduced and made it possible for anyone, regardless of their income, to purchase property with just a 10% deposit, she was able to move forward. They owned their own home as a result of an inheritance Laurence had received. Ailish borrowed £50,000 against their house and the first bank to offer buy to let mortgages gave her 90% mortgages overnight.
‘I had £450,000 - enough money to buy 10 houses. Laurence had been away on a speaking engagement while Ailish was making these transactions. Without mobile phones or emails at the time, she went ahead and when Laurence came home she told him she had bought three houses and had money for another seven.
After he recovered from the shock he asked, ‘What is Plan B if you can’t make the mortgage payments and our income is £16,000?’
Ailish replied, ‘There is no Plan B. Plan A has to work and if it means I stand outside Luton University begging people to live in my houses then I will do it.’ That’s exactly what she did, distributing leaflets outside the university until she had 50 students to fill the houses.
‘The thing about being an entrepreneur is there is no Plan B,’ she said, ‘This makes the big risk The Big Risk. I’m glad to say that it paid off and I have continued to develop the portfolio over the years.’
Years on and, with an expanded property portfolio, Ailish has been able to ease back from the full-time role as a result of the partnership with the ex-offenders’ project.
Asked for some advice to the young entrepreneurs at the National Gathering, Ailish said, ‘Keep your dreams alive. Develop your basic talents and take the opportunity that comes. Be prepared for the big risk. As a Christian business person seek to put your values into everything you do.
‘Do your research into whatever field you are looking to go into. Do not shy away from seeking advice from older, experienced folk as the vast majority of people are very willing to share their knowledge insights and experience. Also, I had an unrelenting work ethic, a practical “can do” mindset and was totally focussed.’