Leeds property business in administration

A property firm owned by a 31-year-old tycoon in Leeds has collapsed into administration, owing over £50m.

Administrators from Begbies Traynor Group have been appointed to SRM Holdings, founded by Simon Morris, a former director of Leeds United.

Morris’s personal fortune was estimated at £69m last year and he featured in The Sunday Times Young Rich List.

The organisation is said to have 50 subsidiaries, most of which are in administration. It is believed to own a portfolio of more than 500 properties, mostly flats, in Leeds, and employs 30 people.

But earlier this year it featured in a BBC Panorama programme that alleged it sold student flats to buy-to-let investors at inflated prices. Last year, in August 2007, Morris was apparently the victim of a drive-by shooting in Leeds.

A spokesman for Begbies Traynor said SRM Holdings had been hit by the downturn in the property market and the inability of buyers to get mortgages to buy flats.

Morris is a well-known name in Leeds since joining a consortium of Yorkshire businessmen who bought Leeds United in 2004 before it was sold to former Chelsea chairman Ken Bates ten months later.

A university drop-out, Morris sold leather coats on a market stall before founding Morris Properties, which specialised in residential property for students and young professionals.

The company went on to develop a £36m residential scheme in the centre of Leeds and sold properties to investors which were mostly rented out to students. It also expanded into commercial property.

But the organisation had already been hit hard by the property market collapse when it featured on Panorama.

Landlords who had bought buy-to-let properties from Morris Properties claimed they had paid too much and many said they had properties repossessed after failing to cover their mortgage repayments.