Premier League footballer Glen Johnson has built up a family property business that prides itself on caring more about the people who live in the houses than squeezing out every last drop of profit. Here explains his ethos and what the future holds.
Between a bridal shop and a double glazing showroom on a down-at-heel high street in Kent sits an office so stylish it would look more at home in Mayfair or St James’s.
From the timber frontage painted Prussian grey to the smart lettering telling passers-by that this is home to Johnsons Real Estate, everything is just right. Inside, thick carpet and an Instagram-worthy wallpaper that looks like embossed bronze underscore the branding message.
The setting on Crayford High Street, opposite a Chinese takeaway and a fried chicken shop, may seem incongruous, but Premier League footballer Glen Johnson wouldn’t be anywhere else.
The 33-year-old, who currently plays right back for Stoke City, grew up in Dartford. His mum lives up the road in the house he bought for her and he wants to give something back to the place he calls home.
“When you start any business, you want to be successful,” he tells me. “We have come from an area that obviously wasn’t that great and it is nice to have offices like this and stuff that you can be proud of, projects you drive past. And you are sort of regenerating the area too.”
As a player who lifted the Premier League title twice with former club Chelsea, Johnson’s property career is little known. But with his younger brother Lewis, he has been steadily building a solid family property business over the past 15 years – and now they plan to step up the pace.
Johnson, who entered West Ham’s youth system at the age of nine, says he has always been “in and around the building game”. His brother trained as a carpenter and his uncle and several cousins were in the building trade.
At 19, after his big break moving from West Ham to Chelsea in a £6m deal, Johnson went to a Clive Emson auction with his brother’s ex-boss.
“We ended up buying a plot of land,” he recalls. “We had an eye on it, but we weren’t going to bid. We wanted to see the process, but the auction room got hold of us and before we knew it, the arm was in the air and we owned this little plot of land in Whitstable.”
The plot in the north Kent town was large enough to build a five-bedroom house, with his brother completing the job on his weekends off. They rented the house out, only recently selling it off.
“It went relatively smooth for a first project. So we tried it again and again,” Johnson says. “We kept recycling the funds. Some we have rented out. Some we have flipped straight away.”
It was his brother who wanted things to go faster, he says, and as they built momentum, Lewis was able to leave his job to focus on the family property business.
“A lot of developers will squeeze every last pound out of a deal, but we don’t – we actually care about what families are going to want. Our design is all around that. We would rather put in the best kitchen and earn less money than put in a rubbish kitchen and make more money.
The pair have now completed more than 10 developments in the Kent area, selling the cheapest for £100,000 and the most expensive for £2.7m, and have four current projects. The business also owns 10 rental properties, worth around £8m. Annual turnover is in the region of £3m.
The brothers began to develop the Johnsons Real Estate brand three or four years ago, buying the office and yard on Crayford High Street from Lewis’s old boss and doing it up as a permanent base.
“In our eyes, you only get to make a first impression once,” Johnson says. “It was key that we did this to a high standard and then people would see and respect what you do and assume that you would do the same on each job.”
Glen is chief executive and Lewis is portfolio manager. Four years ago, they hired Adam Jenner, an old friend from their time at Leigh City Technology College, as general manager.
Keeping it local, Lewis is able to tap into his network of building professionals for each job. And, having sourced many of their first sites through auction, the brothers now work closely with around five local agents who bring sites to them. Recent purchases have included corner plots and a section of someone’s garden. The focus is on developing high-end family homes and flats.
“We try to keep it in the area,” says Johnson. ”It is nice because you drive past the jobs you do. People see the name and see the logo and associate it with this house or that house.”
Their site branding has also brought in deals. “The more jobs we have been doing, the more people have come to us. When we started, we were out all the time looking, looking, looking. Now it is coming to us. That is from the branding, the hoardings, the standard of work people see, the clean sites they drive by.”
The rental business, however, is spread further afield. The portfolio peaked at around 18 rentals as the brothers raced to accumulate properties offering returns of around 7%. But more recently they have been selling off many of those properties to focus on investments more in tune with the luxury brand.
“We have done everything we needed to do and now we want to specialise in the luxury side. We want to own properties we are proud of,” Johnson says.
A prime example is the two-bedroom flat on the 29th floor of the Atlas building in Shoreditch, EC1. They came across the 35-storey Rocket Investments development by chance after going to look at another scheme in nearby Angel. They ended up putting a deposit down that same day.
“We knew it was something special,” Johnson says of the tower designed by Ken Shuttleworth’s Make Architects. The business also owns a two-bedroom in the Bezier Apartments at the heart of Tech City, EC1.
He enjoys doing something different to football, but says the mentality is the same.
“On the football pitch, no one wants to lose and it is the same when you set up a new business – you want it to work and be as successful as it can be. Obviously I love football and love everything I have done, but you also need that time to switch off and do something different.”
How has he managed to juggle this with a Premier League career that has taken him from Chelsea to Portsmouth, Liverpool and now Stoke? “Probably because I can’t sit still,” he laughs.
Johnson enjoys the lighter side of life: his interests include a stake in 20 race horses. But his work ethic is palpable. At school, he says he was only interested in football and friends, but maths always came easy and in his twenties he made time to study it through the Open University.
“I have always worked hard and anything I do I want to do it properly. One of the main reasons I went slowly with my brother to start with was that I wanted to do it properly,” he says.
“When you are training, sometimes you are fortunate and you can be home by 2pm. At the start, I was coming home and sitting in the office until 5 or 6pm and getting deals going and contacts moving and literally sitting behind the computer for the first couple of years.
He adds: “I never really saw it as work. I enjoy it. Every job you do is different. Obviously football takes up a lot of time and energy, but property is something I have always been into and it is a good way to get this brand going. And it is emotionally satisfying to see people living in the houses at the end of it.”
At 33, Johnson acknowledges with a grin that he is “quite old” for a footballer. He extended his contract with Stoke in April, but his career is certainly in its twilight. So what is next?
“Property will probably be the main focus,” he says. “I can do my role on the phone but I like to be here, so I will obviously be in the office more when the football has finished.”
He is keen to push the brand further, but says he has no interest in putting his name to a “showpiece” development, preferring to “chip away and gradually progress”.
No plans for football management or punditry then? “I love playing the game, I love the physical battles, but I don’t really enjoy watching it or talking about it. Never say never – I might try punditry work and really enjoy it, but if I was to guess, I would say [my future] would be more outside of football in later life.”
Johnson has three children aged nine, six and five with partner Laura and clearly has a close eye on securing their future.
“Obviously we don’t have any idea yet what they would like to do workwise, but it is a family business, the name is above the door. Whatever they decide to do I will support,” he says.
“For the next 10 years we will keep doing what we are doing and then we will have a better idea of what they want to do and we will be able to channel properties around their needs. One of them might want to live in the Atlas building.”
Their lives are a far cry from Johnson’s early years, brought up by a resilient single mum. At one point the family was homeless and lived in a hostel before she found her feet again. She passed her driving test so she could take to Johnson – who was named after Spurs legend Glenn Hoddle – to football training.
“What we have come through and overcome, to see where the family is now, it is obviously different ends of the spectrum,” he says. “But in our minds and hearts we are still the same people we were then and I think that drips through into our properties.
“A lot of developers will squeeze every last pound out of a deal, but we don’t – we actually care about what families are going to want. Our design is all around that. We would rather put in the best kitchen and earn less money than put in a rubbish kitchen and make more money.
“Obviously there are levels, but we don’t cut corners. We really think about the end user, the family that is going to be in it and that is what we buzz off.”
He has seen enough of the development business to know that reputation is king.
“A lot of builders do a job, rip someone off, shut the company down, do a different job in a different name and keep doing that. That is not what we wanted. It is nice to be proud. We have built this office here because we are not going anywhere.”
Johnson Real Estate is here to stay.
This article appears in the latest edition of the Property Auction Buyers’ Guide, published by EG on 7 October. For free access to more content for private investors, register here for your free digital edition of the guide.
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