Martin Lewis and his wife, Lara Lewington, have seen the value of their property empire fall by £5 million, according to new documents filed to Companies House. The couple's business, Osmmium Estates Limited, which owns properties across Cheshire, is now worth £13,346,000, down from £18 million five years ago.
Property sales and company finances
The documents show that £2 million worth of property was sold last year, following sales in previous years. The firm also had borrowings of £12.7 million last year, down from £14.2 million the previous year, and held £641,000 in cash deposits.
Martin, 54, and Lara, 47, built their fortune by buying and investing in properties across Cheshire through their business. The MoneySavingExpert founder is estimated to be worth £130 million, according to The Sun.
Career and public profile
Martin launched his MoneySavingExpert website over two decades ago, reportedly setting it up for just £80, before selling it to MoneySupermarket in 2012 for around £87 million. It was reported that, as part of the deal, £60 million would be paid upfront, with a further £27 million depending on how well the site performed.
Since then, he has become a regular on ITV's This Morning, as well as landing his own show, The Martin Lewis Money Show, and a podcast on BBC Radio 5 Live. Although Martin remains extremely private about his life, Lara resides in London with their daughter.
Savings advice
Martin recently offered This Morning viewers advice on savings, explaining that people are worried about their mortgages and unsure whether to pay them off or put funds into savings. He said: "Whenever I talk about savings, people go, 'Who's got savings?' I mean, just report from the Bank of England today, an extra £4.7 billion has just been put into savings."
He added: "In the pandemic alone, £150 billion. We have over a trillion quid worth of savings in this country. This is not a small issue, and it's why we get more questions about savings and debt when we do the open phone call. So that’s why I wanted to cover the subject."
Martin said people need to decide what the biggest priorities are in their finances, advising: "First thing you do if you've got other expensive debt, you know, credit card debt, a loan that’s expensive that you are allowed to overpay without penalties. You want to clear those before you're clearing your mortgage because their interest rate is high." He later advised that, in principle, if people can earn more on their savings than their mortgage costs, they may want to save rather than overpay on their mortgage.
