HOSPITALITY management firm Altido has acquired Scottish property service platform Sherpa.
It is the latest in a series of significant expansions for the company in Scotland, which is on track to exceed the 2022 budget of £13.2m revenue.
Sherpa, a property service platform, which includes maintenance, cleaning and operations for property owners, and sister company Festival Flats, 15 hand-picked festival rooms and apartments in Edinburgh and Glasgow, has now become part of Altido’s inventory.
Sherpa’s cleaning services will form part of Altido’s ever-growing Scottish portfolio.
Rachel Davis, operations manager at Sherpa, said, “Altido has a similar ethos of achieving excellent service for their owners so is perfect to take on Sherpa. I’m also delighted to be joining the new team as client and lettings manager, Scotland."
With the addition of Sherpa, Altido now has "a highly diversified" portfolio in Scotland, which already included townhouses and country estates such as the historic Georgian mansion, Gilmerton House.
In July 2022, Altido opened the brand’s first ”co-living space” for students, launching into long-term lets.
This 11-bedroom apartment on York Place, Edinburgh includes “multi-family” communal spaces with shared kitchens and lounges. In the same month, it launched a new portfolio of five rent to rent buildings in St Giles, Edinburgh, within easy walking distance to the Royal Mile.
Altido’s "pop-up hotel” model also had a second successful summer in Edinburgh, where existing student accommodation, that would otherwise remain empty, were transformed into rooms to accommodate visitors to the city and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This initiative brought in £1m gross booking value to Altido in August alone
Altido is also working closely with a property developer in Edinburgh to refurbish two hotels and a former brewery into aparthotels, which feature kitchenettes, smart locks and are completely staffless.
Will Parry, chief executive of Altido, said: “We are delighted to be growing our portfolio of over 2,000 properties across Europe with more than 350 properties in Scotland.
"In this country, 2022 has been all about diversifying Altido’s portfolio with a focus on popular tourist destinations like Edinburgh and Glasgow.
"We have enjoyed finding creative ways of flexing the use of existing buildings in Scottish cities to meet the demand for short-term rentals this year, for instance with our pop-up hotels during Edinburgh Fringe festival.
"We have also used existing housing stock to refurbish old buildings, repurpose existing buildings and meet demand for co-living spaces. We are mindful to respect the recent short-term rental residential regulations coming into force in Edinburgh in April 2023, and continue to build a thriving business around them.”
Altido is said to be on a rapid growth trajectory and 2022 has been a transformative year with the company acquiring multiple new properties across Europe. The pace of this post-pandemic growth has been facilitated by the significant capital injection made by DoveVivo in February 2022.
The value of the Sherpa acquisition was not disclosed.
Law firm moves secures 'biggest Grade A deal' in Edinburgh this year
ANDERSON Strathern is moving into the new Capital Square office development in the largest new-build Grade A office transaction deal in the city this year.
The law firm is one of three new tenants secured by BAM at the newly completed development, based at the heart of Edinburgh’s Exchange District, with accountancy group Mazars and engineering company Stantec also agreeing to take space at the property.
Chancellor cuts short US trip
Liz Truss is expected to be forced to scrap parts of her mini-budget amid growing pressure on the Prime Minister to reassure markets and rescue her administration.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is flying back to London from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual meeting in Washington, where he is likely to find a significant section of his mini-budget re-drawn after days of open revolt among Tory MPs and an emerging market consensus that another U-turn is on the cards.
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