19-year-old Indian-origin boy becomes UK's youngest millionaire
With a net worth of £12 million (Rs 103.4 crore) Akshay Ruparelia has been declared the UK's youngest millionaire. While most children spend their free time playing, this 19-year-old boy was juggling his school work with negotiating property deals on his phone.
Born to deaf parents, Akshay learned sign language at an extremely young age. His father is a care worker and his mother works as a teaching assistant for deaf children.
Akshay owns an online estate agency business which was valued at £12 million within a year. His business offers to sell properties at a fraction of the price charged by established estate agents.
Sixteen months after its launch, ‘doorsteps.co.uk’ has become the 18th largest estate agency in the UK. Akshay says he has already sold £100 million worth of property.
Akshay initially hired a call centre to respond to business calls during his class hours. He would then call his clients back after school. His friends have nicknamed him Alan Sugar after business tycoon and Apprentice star Baron Sugar.
He aims to put conventional estate agents out of business as they charge an extremely high commission to sell houses. He charges £99 for the same work.
According to Financial Express, he said,
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 besides it.
He had to pay his sister’s boyfriend to help him out with clicking photographs of the property since he did not have a car to drive to the place. Akshay was successfully able to sell the property along with the land within three weeks.
Initially, he took a loan of £7,000 from his relatives to start his business. Now, he has employed 12 people and plans to expand the business.
Akshay is trying to recruit an expanding network of mothers all over the UK to show clients the properties he has been asked to sell. Speaking to Mirror, he said,
Why give an estate agent a small fortune just for putting photos of your house on the internet? Quite rightly people trust mums. Every mum who works for me will be honest and tell the truth. It is important. For the majority of people, selling their home is the biggest financial transaction of their lives.
His hard work and determination at such a young age are an inspiration for everyone.
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