GuestInvest nets £140m of fresh backing from Bank of Scotland

Buy-to-let company GuestInvest has entered into a £140m joint venture with Bank of Scotland Corporate (BOS) to expand its business.

The deal sees BOS take a minority stake in GuestInvest, which is run by founder and chief executive Johnny Sandelson.

Sandelson said: "The funding from BOS will enable us to take an exciting new asset class into the next stage of development. We have aggressive plans to expand with further acquisitions in the UK and abroad."

GuestInvest's debut hotel Guesthouse West launched in April 2004 and the company claims it has netted investors returns on capital in excess of 6.8% since.

In October last year the company revealed a £35m redevelopment of a second London property in Baywater known as the Nest hotel. Due to open next year, half of the hotel's rooms have now been sold.

A third hotel in London's Bermondsey is due to be officially announced in the next few weeks.

Under the GuestInvest concept, investors purchase their own hotel room that they can stay in free for up to 52 nights a year. They also receive 50% of the room's income, which is let out by the hotel on their behalf throughout the year.

Shared ownership is still a risky business >>

GuestInvest lines up more buy-to-let hotels >>

Is buy-to-let the way forward for hotels? >>

By Chris Druce

E-mail your comments to Chris Druce](mailto:chris.druce@rbi.co.uk?subject=GuestInvest nets £140m of fresh backing from Bank of Scotland) here.

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week -