Personalised number plates now seen as a major investment opportunity

Personalized license plates were once seen as the reserve of posers and the ultra-rich.

But the recent surge in their popularity has been such that the private record market is now worth around £2 billion – turning the most sought-after records into lucrative investment opportunities.

Specialists are now pouring hundreds of thousands of pounds into the personalized plates market to secure the most valuable combinations – often those with two initials and a number, which experts say are currently booming.

One expert even tells us that they yield higher returns than traditional investments such as watches, jewelery and classic cars.

Jon Kirkbright, 45, founder of Plate Hunter, says the value of private plates has skyrocketed in recent years.

The Staffordshire-based personalized plates dealer previously worked in car sales and then sold car insurance.

He started 11 years ago by listing a few license plates he found on eBay on his website.

Today he hosts 60 million records on his site, including records released by the DVLA, where he acts as a broker.

And he says he currently “can’t keep up” with demand from wealthy investors.

A board Jon sold with a short, catchy name went for £20,000 in 2020.

But within 12 months its value had doubled and it was resold again in 2021 for £40,000.

Two-letter, one-digit license plates are becoming incredibly valuable, he says.

In the 1990s these plates usually cost between £2,000 and £10,000.

But due to a recent surge in popularity, the same plates can now fetch up to £45,000, according to Jon and based on data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

Jon said: ‘We’re seeing investors coming out of the art markets and wine investors getting interested in license plates – because it’s proven to pay off.

“People who get into it make money quickly and it becomes very addictive.”

Jon said he recently sold personalized number plates to an England and Arsenal player – and another unique plate was bought by a customer for a whopping £140,000.

The DVLA issues new license plates twice a year, on March 1 and September 1.

There’s also a thriving trade in vintage personalized signs, Jon said, with investors often buying and reselling quickly.

He added: ‘There are many who started in 2007 and 2010 for three, four grand.

‘Five years ago they were 10,000 and now we sell them for 20,000. It’s just supply and demand. There are people who pay and that’s what matters.’

Unique number plates can fetch even higher amounts, as ‘F1’ – for Formula One – sold for £440,000 in 2008 and ‘1D’ – for One Direction – sold for £285,000 in 2009.

The ‘F1’ number plate belongs to businessman Afzal Khan, who has reportedly turned down offers of more than £10 million for it.

But even if he did agree on a £10 million sale price for ‘F1’, it still wouldn’t break the current world record for a private vehicle license plate.

That happened in April when a driver splashed a whopping £12 million on a ‘7’ plate at an auction in Dubai.

Even hard-up councils sell desirable boards

One of the things driving the boom is municipalities with little money selling personalized license plates that used to be used for senior local government officials.

“In the past decade, there have been many municipalities that have sold their personalized signs that they have received as gifts in the past,” says Jon.

‘The municipalities sell them to make money after they got the registrations at the time.’

This has led to much sought after numbers coming onto the market – with East Renfrewshire Council in Scotland selling the rare ‘HS 0’ number plate and saying they hoped Harry Styles would buy it.

“People want license plates that are their initials, or their girlfriend’s or their daughters’ – ideally with a ‘1’ at the end,” Jon said.

The DVLA’s roadblock on “rude” license plates

Jon went on to explain that people are sometimes inclined to buy “rude” signs composed of a series of letters and numbers that combine to create offensive words or meanings.

However, this can have unintended consequences.

A buyer, who had a license plate with an extremely offensive word with a “1” in the middle, bragged about his purchase online.

Jon said the buyer appears to have been contacted by the DVLA as the social media posts quickly disappeared and registration is no longer underway.

With the arrival of new license plates every two years, the DVLA even has a team of experts sit down to identify and remove as many offensive number and letter combinations as possible before they become available in March and September.

The personalized sign market is estimated to be worth around £2 billion

The recent boom in the UK’s personalized number plates market means the industry is now worth an estimated £2 billion, according to companies operating in the sector.

British motorists spend millions of pounds on them every year and the Treasury has collected billions from private plate sales since their inception.

Jon estimates that one in three cars in the UK have custom number plates – people often buy number plates to make their car look newer or older, if they don’t want neighbors to know they’ve bought a brand new vehicle.

“When I launched this website, my mom said it wouldn’t bring in any customers because personalized license plates were only for the rich,” Jon said.

“Now when I look at cars on the road, it seems to be one in three.”

He says there’s even been an increase in cases of divorcing couples sometimes buying new personalized plates so their former “other halves” can’t keep up.

Jon said that while there are bargains, sellers should be wary of unscrupulous dealers who promise high prices that people aren’t willing to pay for.

He said, “Some of the bigger dealers will fool you and say it’s only worth more to get you on the books.”

“There is no fixed price. I usually have a conversation with sellers about what has been sold or what is available at that price – and what the records are originally being sold for, to give the customer an idea.

“Then the customer said, ‘Yes, this is the price I want.

“Then we advertise it on the site – it’s all about the right price. You don’t just pluck figures from the air; you must examine them all.’