“I was frustrated that I couldn’t find a nice place to live because everyone assumed I was going to behave like an animal,” says Student Cribs founder and director Charlie Vaughan-Lee in his Notting Hill offices.
“So I bought one myself, as well as some on behalf of family friends, did them up to a really high standard and rented them out to my friends for a little more than the market average.
“But we are talking £80 a week rather than £70 and instead of a complete dive, you got a newly fitted kitchen and bathroom, furniture that was going to last and not all cheap flatpack stuff.”
Vaughan-Lee founded Student Cribs with the intention of specialising in high-end accommodation that targets second- to fourth-year students. The company has just secured a £200m funding boost to implement its plans to buy 500 properties providing up to 3,500 bedrooms and increase the number of cities in which it is present from 12 to 20, over the next four years.
EG caught up with the young entrepreneur to find out more about his plans.
