Posts by Andrew Stanton
Brexit & The Property Market
Hard of soft, not Boris Johnson’s choice of boiled egg, but how Brexit unfolds will have an affect on the property market. As Carol Lewis writing in the Sunday Times recently summed it, ‘The average UK homeowner made more money from their home in the first ten months of this year than in the preceding…
Read MoreProperty 2021 Feast or Famine?
In three and a half decades in property, 2020 was for me and I am sure you, the most exciting, devastating white knuckle ride that I can remember. Like a badly mixed cocktail, with shots of alcohol/events that should never share the same glass, and two cocktail umbrellas, one Brexit the other Covid-19, it is…
Read MoreOffice-space experience in 2021
Things have changed in the office, first how the commercial model of real estate, the securing and buying or leasing of offices is performed, the second is how technology allows us to experience the actual environment. In 2021, the landscape will be rapidly changing, the landlord is not a traditional landlord anymore, flexibility now reigns…
Read MoreIt is a Cliff
A fortnight before Christmas and there are more cliff-hangers than reindeers on Santa’s sledge, let us go through the seasonal pre-Xmas list. Countrywide PLC – a tug of love between Connells, a proven model of profitability and other factions that ‘have a plan’ but have not had their mettle tested. In truth needing the backing…
Read MoreRegulation or Education – What is the best for Real Estate?
I believe in education, qualifications and developing yourself, as everyone now is very much their own person and own brand. Being a consultant for real estate and proptech I fully support the argument that property professionals – need to keep up with industry changes. But there are two camps of thought, on one side Baron…
Read MoreDeal or No Deal- Why the Sale of Countrywide Matters
As I write this I must declare an interest before I start, I am grateful to Countrywide as I started my agency career with them in the 1980’s and in my first year, I earnt five-times my previous salary pre-agency, and became a manager with a brand new BMW. Back then graft, service and esprit…
Read MoreIf it’s not broken, don’t fix it!
Prior to my epiphany with Proptech a few years ago, try saying that with a few seasonal drinks inside you; I was a traditional property man, a stalwart of the status quo, and slow to adapt to change. Not quite one of the ‘if it is not broken don’t fix it’ brigade but close. Now…
Read MoreAre you a Punk Rocker?
Back in the mid 1970’s, as a youth I spent much time wearing a black bin bag, bondage strides and listening to the Sex Pistols, I was trying to be alternative – me and half the country. In time I found myself all grown up and wearing a conservative suit for over three decades, selling…
Read MoreManaging client’s expectations
In late August 1988, when the world was young and I was a fearless negotiator, I was on the way to my first million, or so I naively thought. Having agreed industrial amounts of sales due to my brilliance – in reality due to the tidal wave of activity caused by Nigella Lawson’s dad the…
Read More‘Fit for purpose?’
Like a vast sea washing out at low tide, Covid-19 has revealed a new shoreline where everything looks odd and different and is up for scrutiny. From Philip Green’s Arcadia group retail model, to Countrywide PLC and their 500M losses over the last three years. Or the bottleneck of hundreds of thousands of sales that…
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