PROBE: What has happened to the UK’s most ambitious landlord and property duo?

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Mystery surrounds the Carling Property Group – one of the largest private residential landlords in the UK – which appears to have gone underground.

The Scottish firm, which three years ago boasted a portfolio of more than 350 houses, studios and flats through its firm the PRS Group, is not answering phones, while its sister company – United Capital Investments – is also uncontactable.

The website listed on Carling’s Facebook page no longer exists, while the PRS Group website is now hosted by a casino firm.

Hair transplant

Somewhat surprisingly, the Carling Group’s head office phone number turns out to be a hair transplant clinic where a receptionist reveals that it has recently been fielding a number of calls from people trying to contact the property firm.

Owners Graeme and Leanne Carling (pictured) are a high-profile couple who revealed only recently that they were on target for a £500m a year turnover by 2024. The pair set up Carling Property Group in 2008 and launched PRS Group in 2018 with the aim of becoming the UK’s most dominant operator in the private rented sector.

Financial backing

In 2019 they revealed plans to pick up properties from private landlords shedding their portfolios and how they had secured financial backing from banks in the UK, as well as individuals and investors overseas.

In their last recorded media interviews in February (for a business website) and September (within interviews recorded by Property TV), Graeme Carling spoke of his plan to sell off those properties which were deemed unsustainable and to diversify into non-property markets such as pharmacy, construction, electrical and electrical services and facilities management.

In 2019 the Carlings acquired building services company McGill which had been facing financial difficulties but, after receiving a reported £1 million investment cash, the firm collapsed in September this year with debts of £4.4 million. More success has been achieved with their second company purchase, electrical and plumbing firm Alliance.

Meanwhile, United Capital has been ‘actively seeking’ acquisition opportunities in the UK among cash-generative businesses with a turnover of £10m to £80m.

The self-styled, “innovative, socially responsible, and forward-thinking international property group” promotes itself as “committed to decarbonising existing properties to provide sustainable and environmentally-friendly buildings for work, life, and play”.

Graeme Carling is listed as a director of 15 firms at Companies House and owns the Affinity Business Centre and workforce accommodation company, Dundee Digs.

LandlordZONE has made multiple attempts to track the couple down via listed numbers and emails for their various businesses, and made a direct approach via his Twitter account, all with no response to date. Graeme’s recent tweets suggest the couple have recently been in Dubai and Portugal.

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