Millionaire property mogul Fergus Wilson is to start selling up his portfolio.

Once boasting a portfolio of up to 1,000 homes, the 70-year-old currently owns 400 properties in Maidstone and Ashford.

However the sudden loss of three maintenance staff members has moved the Boughton Monchelsea landlord to stop letting and start selling.

He said: "We shall try and do it through natural selection, selling properties as they empty as its the humane way.

"Ideally I'd like to sell the lot tomorrow, if somebody came and offered to buy them all for the right price and keep the tenants inside I'd accept.

"But generally you get the best price for empty properties, that's the problem, there aren't enough new houses for buyers.

"We do have some tenants who have been with us for 12 to 14 years, in the future if those properties aren't empty I'll try and do the best by them and sell the property with them inside."

Mr Wilson claims his maintenance workforce has been reduced to one full time worker and another part time member of staff that works three days a week, after three workers left this month.

All three workers, who were from Romania and Hungary, have opted for jobs in Europe.

It's a sharp fall from the 14 he employed in 2016.

He said: "Once a tenant leaves a house it needs to be checked over, repainted and things like that.

"I've had a property empty for four months because we haven't got enough people to get around and do the work.

"I don't think it is to do with wages, the most I was offering at one point was £70,000.

"Maybe they're going because of Brexit, but on the whole I don't know.

"I've noticed a lot of eastern Europeans who tend to come over here for a short amount of time, earn enough money and then return to their home country.

"I had a Bulgarian tenant who stayed in the UK for a year and in that time made enough money to buy three homes in Bulgaria."