An Indian-origin teenager has become one of Britain's youngest millionaires after his online estate agency business got valued at 12 million pounds in just over a year.
Akshay Ruparelia, at just 19 years of age, juggled his school work with negotiating property deals for his no-frills business that offers to sell properties for a fraction of the cost charged by established high street estate agents.
This week ‘doorsteps.co.uk’ became the 18th biggest estate agency in the UK – just 16 months after the website went live.
Ruparelia claims to have already sold 100 million pounds worth of properties since he set up his business.
I got the website up and running and after a couple of weeks a man in Sussex asked me to sell his home and a separate chunk of land he owned beside it. I had to pay my sister’s boyfriend 40 pounds to drive me to Sussex to take photographs of the house, as I hadn’t passed my driving test and didn’t have a car.Ruparelia
The north London-based schoolboy was able to sell the property and land within three weeks, which set the ball rolling.
He started his company with 7,000 pounds, borrowed from relatives and now employs 12 people.
Ruparelia attributes the idea to set up a small business to reading the biography of no-frills airline Ryanair founder Michael O'Leary.
The schoolboy is now well on his way to support his two deaf parents, who he says are very proud of him.
His father, 57-year-old Kaushik, is a care worker and mother, 51-year-old Renuka, is a teaching assistant for deaf children and a support worker for deaf children with Camden Council in London.
Ruparelia has got an offer to study economics and mathematics at Oxford University but has decided to put that on hold to grow his business.
He began by paying himself 500 pounds a month from the profits, which he has increased to 1,000 pounds a month and is saving up to buy his first car.
(The article has been edited for length)
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