Dragons' Den star Tej Lalvani buys stake in Airbnb management firm
Dragons’ Den star Tej Lalvani has become the second entrepreneur from the BBC show to buy part of a fast-growing London Airbnb property management company, the Evening Standard can reveal.
Lalvani, the chief executive of vitamins business Vitabiotics, has agreed to take a 7.5% share in Air Agents which takes pictures of properties, cleans them and manages them for landlords.
The new funding will allow Londoners Mark Hudson and Fran Milson to more than double the 650 homes on their books by the end of the year. The friends founded Air Agents in 2015 and sold a 14% stake to Dragon Touker Suleyman in 2017.
Millionaire Lalvani, who has sealed the investment privately, would not divulge the price. However, he said: “It’s a lot bigger than most of the deals on the den.”
Stars on the programme typically invest £20,000 to £50,000 each time. Lalvani said: “This is a startup that is scalable. It takes away the headache of dealing with short-term lets from landlords.”
According to new research today from property agent Colliers International and Hotelschool The Hague, the number of landlords with more than 10 Airbnb accommodations listed in London has risen 8.4% over the last year.
Colin Hall, head of London hotels at Colliers International, said: “This rapid growth in multi-listed landlords demonstrates the changing profile of Airbnb from what was originally a platform for individuals to let out their own homes, to a profitable commercial venture whereby people are buying residential properties specifically for use as Airbnb accommodation."
