A player who lifted the Premier League title twice with his former club Chelsea, Glen Johnson also has an as-yet little known property career.
But with his younger brother Lewis, he has been building a solid family property business over the past 15 years – and now the pair plan to step up the pace.
Glen Johnson, who entered West Ham’s youth system aged nine and now plays for Stoke City, says he has always been “in and around the building game”. His brother trained as a chippy 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. We had an eye on it, but we weren’t going to bid,” he recalls. “We wanted to see the process, but the auction room got hold of us. 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’ve rented out. Some we’ve flipped straight away.”
Roots in Dartford
As they built momentum, Lewis was able to leave his job and focus full-time on the family property business. The pair, who grew up in Dartford, have now completed more than 10 developments in the Kent area, selling the cheapest for £100,000 and the most expensive for £2.7m. Four projects are ongoing at the moment.
The business also owns 10 rental properties, valued at around £8m in total. Annual turnover is in the region of £3m.
The brothers began to develop the Johnsons Real Estate brand three or four years ago, buying an office and yard on Crayford High Street in south-east London, and doing it up as a permanent base. It was important to them to remain local. “We’ve come from an area that obviously wasn’t that great and it’s nice to have offices like this and stuff that you can be proud of, projects you drive past,” Johnson says. “And you’re sort of regenerating the area too.”
Glen is chief executive, while Lewis is portfolio manager. Four years ago, they hired Adam Jenner, their contemporary at Leigh City Technology College, as general manager.
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.
“The more jobs we’ve been doing, the more people have come to us. When we started, we were out all the time, looking, looking, looking. Now job are coming to us. That’s from the branding, the hoardings, the standard of work people see, the clean sites they drive by,” Johnson says.
The rental business is spread further afield. It peaked at around 18 rentals, but more recently Johnson’s firm has been selling off many of those to focus on investments more in tune with the luxury brand. These include a two-bedroom flat on the 29th floor of the Atlas building in Shoreditch, EC1, and a two-bedroom flat 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’s 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’ve done but you also need that time to switch off and do something different.”
Football versus property
But how has he managed to juggle this with a Premier League career that has taken him from Chelsea to Portsmouth to Liverpool and now Stoke?
“Probably because I can’t sit still,” he laughs. “I’ve always worked hard and anything I do I want to do it properly.”
He adds: “When you’re training, sometimes you’re fortunate and you can be home by 2 o’clock. At the start I was coming home and sitting in the office until five or six o’clock, getting deals going and contacts moving and literally sitting behind the computer for the first couple of years.
“Obviously football takes up a lot of time and energy, but property is something I’ve always been into and it’s a good way to get this brand going. And it’s emotionally satisfying to see people living in the houses at the end of it.”
At 33, Johnson acknowledges that he’s “quite old” for a footballer. So what 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’ll obviously be in the office more when the football’s finished.”
Johnson, who has three children aged nine, six and five with partner Laura, is keen to push the brand on further. 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, really. Never say never – I might try punditry work and really enjoy it, but if I was to guess, then I would say [my future] would be more outside football in later life.”
To send feedback, e-mail julia.cahill@egi.co.uk or tweet @egjuliac or @estatesgazette
A longer version of this article will appear in the Property Auction Buyers’ Guide, to be published on 7 October. Register for your copy here.
