(Image source from: India.com and Facebook.com/Akshay.Ruparelia)

19-Year Old Indian-Origin Teen Becomes UK’s Youngest Millionare:- A 19-year old Indian-origin teenager, Akshay Ruparelia, is now one of the Britain’s youngest millionaires. The online estate agency business of Akshay got valued at 12 million pounds in just one year.

Akshay, with negotiating property deals for his no-frills business, juggled his school work. The young lad’s business offers to sell properties for a fraction of the cost charged by established high street estate agents. Just 16 months after the website, “doorsteps.co.uk” went live, it became the 18th biggest estate agency in the United Kingdom.

The teenager claims that since he set up his business, he has already sold 100 million pounds worth of properties. “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,” he said.

Just within three weeks, the north London-based schoolboy was able to sell the property and land. With an investment of 7,000 pounds, the company was started and around 12 people are employed. Akshay hired a call centre to answer calls coming in to his work during his school hours, in the early days of his business, and would return the calls after his classes.

His model is based on hiring an ever-expanding network of self-employed mothers across the UK, who show clients around the properties he has been asked to sell. The model is set to turn the property selling market away from agents in flashy suits, believes the teenage tycoon. “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,” he told the a leading news paper.

After reading the biography of no-frills airline Ryanair founder Michael O Leary, Akshay was inspired to set up a small business. . “Mr O Leary began by selling flights for just 4.99 pounds. His point was that if you can offer customers something at a price they can’t believe and you deliver what you say you will, you hook people in and your business will work,” he said.

The school boy is now well settled to support his two deaf parents, who say they are very proud of him. His father, Kaushik (57) is a care worker and mother Renuka (51), is a teaching assistant for deaf children and a support worker for deaf children with Camden Council in London. Akshay has got an offer to study economics and mathematics at Oxford University but has decided to put that on hold to grow his business. The young lad started 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.

SUPRAJA