Entrepreneurs launch property management business

A FORMER lawyer and law professor has taken a very different change in direction, teaming up with his property entrepreneur partner to launch a management business for landlords and investors.

Paul and Liz Lanfear built a multi-million pound property business in Property Angels, providing housing for professionals in Leeds.

Now they have launched Multi-Let UK, a bespoke service providing professional house shares.

Mr Lanfear is a qualified barrister who was an associate solicitor at DLA Piper in Leeds, starting out at Dechert LLP in London, specialising in investigations and asset recovery, commercial litigation and banking and finance litigation.

He teamed up with his wife Liz in 2006. Mrs Lanfear founded Property Angels and is a prolific investor in properties in Leeds.

Since 2000, Ms Lanfear has been building a substantial portfolio of flats, single-let houses and both small and large HMOs in the professional and student sectors.

Mr Lanfear spoke to TheBusinessDesk.com on the launch of Multi-Let UK. He said he was “young and stupid” when he moved to London, but rectified this by coming back to Yorkshire.

“At that time I met and married Liz, she had been investing in property long before we met and had set up Property Angels, our personal brand.

“I only came into it later on, after I had left DLA and gone into training at BPP Law School, hence the young professional connection. it was Liz’s passion, and she had done it successfully on her own, but stopped during the recession. In 2012 we started working on it together.

“The challenge that we found was that we had some fabulous lettings agents but the room by room model we do is very specialist.

“We came to the conclusion that the market needed genuine specialists, so we set up Multi Let, a national brand. It is very specific, providing shared accommodation for professionals, with all inclusive packages that can include cleaners, superfast broadband, bills, anything you can think of so the customer can focus on their careers, and we’ll deal with everything else.

“The market in Leeds is really interesting. There is a huge demand from young professionals looking for this type of accommodation.

“The world they live in has completely changed from when I qualified. Expectations are much higher, there is less security as people work on contracts, with transigent careers, as well as trying to save for their first flat or house.

“As a student, I’d pretty much live anywhere! Today’s market is very different. You don’t see groups of postgraduate young people living together as much as we used to do.

“People are looking for a place for themselves or one or two together, not whole houses. They are a more sophisticated consumer. They don’t just want a nice looking house, they want services and an experience. They want people on the phone who treat them like clients not tenants

“It has been a massive change for landlords,” he said, “Most landlords are good decent people, just trying to keep up. But the customers they deal with have high expectations, this generation is less interested in buying stuff; they want to buy an experience, which is what we’re giving them.”