14 Bricks & Mortar 1GP Friday October 23 2015 | the times

Alan Sugar reportedlytells his apprenticesthat propertydevelopment is theroute to riches.Meanwhile, SarahBeeny has made acareer from advising

us how to make big money doing upsmall houses. With property pricespeaking in London and unreliablegrowth elsewhere how do you make asuccess of it? We ask some of theindustry’s rising stars for tips.

Keep it in the familyHaving family in the business isdefinitely a boost. Daniel Sugar is adirector of the property companyAmsprop, which is owned by his father,Lord Sugar, while Steve Rigby is thechief operating officer of his father SirPeter Rigby’s company, Rigby Group,which includes the developmentcompany Rigby & Rigby.Two rising-star developers, Wilben

and Pin & Pin, are run by brothers.Twins William and Benjamin Samuels,the founders of Wilben, say workingtogether works. “We can have a blazingrow— although never in the officebecause that would be unprofessional—

years old, say they decided to go intobusiness together at the age of 16. Willsays: “We made the decision while wewere at school. I then studied interiordesign and architecture, and had threeyears working for design anddevelopment companies while Benlearnt the acquisition and finance side.”Steve Dodd, the founder of Elevate

Property Group, says: “I started back inmy teens, two recessions ago, renovatingterraced houses in south Birmingham.It was just a way of turning a profit whenI was in my late teens— I’d buysomewhere for £20,000 and sell it for£30,000 having spent £5,000 on it. A£5,000 profit seemed like a lot of moneyin the early Nineties.”

Start smallIf by this stage you’re worrying becauseyou’re over 21 and your dad works inprofessional services not property, don’tfret, just start small. Dean Louw, thechief executive of developer CLPD, wasan accountant before consideringproperty development.“My background is as a chartered

accountant. I had a practice in Vauxhall.Then my partner Rafael, who is an

architect, was made redundant and I wasapproaching my 40th birthday. I startedthinking: ‘I need to change my career orstay a chartered accountant all my life’.My last client, Bertrand, was interestedin property, so the three of us decided tohave a go ourselves,” he says.The trio’s first project was a

maisonette near Clapham Junction,

Above: a penthousedesigned by Rigby &Rigby in Charles Square,Mayfair, on the marketfor £7.75million throughKnight Frank. Rightinset: the penthouse atConcord House sold fora record £1.68million

VictoriaBeckhamworksnextdoor

The conversion of Victoria Beckham’sdesign studio into two luxuryapartments will be as surprising tosome as her move from music tofashion. Rather than the typical primeLondon look of deep, silk carpets anddark wood joinery, its style is as paredback as one of her shift dresses.The two apartments — the west and

the east — have floors of polishedconcrete and exposed wiring on theconcrete celings (see right). There iscreative use of some unusual materialstoo, including Italian-designed kitchencabinets made of recycled paper andsandstone with distressed antique steeltops, while in the bathrooms there arerecycled tiles and Murano glass basins.

“The whole house has differenttextures and surfaces highlighted bydifferent lighting throughout,” explainsthe architect, Rafael Borrego.The industrial-chic style is likely to

appeal to a creative sort, according toDean Louw, the chief executive ofdeveloper CLPD. Beckham remains aclose neighbour with office-studiospace above and behind the flats, andabove that resides Toni Mascolo, ofToni & Guy Hairdressing.“We wanted to retain the industrial

feel of the place so we kept thedistressed concrete ceiling and pillarsin the living rooms. We evenaccentuated some aspects, includingthe metal structural supports, and we

COVER STORY

but two minutes later we will havemoved on to something else. We don’tdwell on it,” Ben says.“Our father had property interests and

we were going around sites from a youngage. We got a lot of our work experiencewith dad’s mates as we tried to decidewhat side of the business we wanted tobe in,”Will says.Luckily they chose different disciplines

within property, with Ben in charge ofthe finance side, and Will taking the leadon design. Will says: “We have verydefined jobs on each project. Althoughthat doesn’t mean I don’t have opinionson the business side or vice versa. Weare diplomatic with each other.”Adam and Alex Pinion, who founded

Pin & Pin, have a similar backgroundand have also adopted defined roles: “It’snot too bad working together. We livetogether and have similar hobbies, too.He’s more creative and I’m moreanalytical. We have a family backgroundin property, although that was moreabout industrial properties in the northof England,” Adam says.

Start youngBoth sets of brothers started in theproperty game when they were young.The Pinion brothers, who are now 31 and27 years old, bought and renovated theirfirst property on Croatia’s Dalmatiancoast when Adam was in his final year atuniversity, aged 20. His younger brotherAlex, who was 16, was less involved atthe time. “We thought property in theUK was overvalued and decided to lookat opportunities in a few differentcountries. We decided that Croatia wasthe least developed and held the mostopportunities,” Adam says.The Samuels brothers, who are now 28

Start young,small, andkeep it inthe familyAlways thought youcould make it as aproperty developer?Carol Lewis lists therules for success now

Above and on the cover: Ben and Will Samuels in their Chester Square development, on the market for £32.5 million with

DAVID SANDISON FOR THE TIMES;

the times | Friday October 23 2015 1GP Bricks & Mortar 15

Join the queue if youwant that city view

With property prices set to riseconsiderably in the time between launchand completion on some of thesedevelopments— by up to 30 per cent inCanary Wharf by some predictions —there may be some buyers who, having

paid just 20 per cent of the purchaseprice to secure the sale (the

rest not being due untilcompletion), are hopingto make a quickprofit by flipping—selling on at a profitbefore paying thefull price.“We can’t restrict

this — what ifsomeone who worksfor a bank in Canary

Wharf is relocated toSydney in the two years

between buying andcompletion? They don’t need

the apartment any more but need tobuy abroad. We can’t hold people todecisions three to four years down theline, with no flexibility— it wouldn’t befair,” De’ath says.With developers keen to satisfy the

banks by selling the first phase ofdevelopments off plan, De’ath must behoping he can achieve a hat-trick withqueues for the recently approved57-storey skyscraper by Herzog & deMeuron, in Dockland’s former WoodWharf, when it launches next year.Carol Lewis

As a developer, you knowyou’ve made it when peopleare willing to camp outovernight to secure one ofyour properties — before

you’ve laid a brick.A few weeks ago people queued for up

to 30 hours for the chance to buy withinOne York Square, in the SouthbankPlace development, near Waterloo,in London (where prices started at£540,000). The development by CanaryWharf Group had more than 3,000registrations of interest leading up tothe launch and sold 160 properties(80 per cent) within the first week.One York Square is the first of sevenbuildings on the 5.25-acre Shell Centresite to be released for sale— Two YorkSquare will be released next year.Before that, in July, two developments

in Canary Wharf attracted mediaattention when people camped out tobuy in Galliard’s Maine Tower (pricesfrom £350,000) and Canary WharfGroup’s 10 Park Drive (prices from£395,000). Nearly all of the 230 homesin Maine Tower, launched in thescheme’s first phase, sold out in oneweekend— many sold in four hoursafter eager buyers queued for36 hours. The apartments in thesedevelopments will not be finisheduntil 2019.“People will only queue if

there is rarity value; if itis something they can’tget elsewhere,” saysBrian De’ath, thehead of residentialsales at CanaryWharf Group.When 10 ParkDrive launched,people queuedfor more than 24hours for the chanceto buy in the firstresidential block in theheart of Canary Wharf.The tower block housed the first345 properties in the regenerationof the central business zone that willeventually include some 3,200 homes.Surely the queues are the result of

people seduced by marketing hype?De’ath explains that at One YorkSquare there had been three to fourweeks’ advertising and marketing, and at10 Park Drive the marketing suiteopened eight weeks before the launch.In neither case was there marketingoverseas. He says that the “vastmajority of buyers were British-based”.

Buyers camped out overnight (below)to be in line to buy a flat in CanaryWharf Group’s 10 Park Drive, above

ran the wires across the ceiling tomake a feature of it, rather thanconcealing everything,” Louw says.The bedrooms are more subtle

than the main living areas withsoft, concealed lighting and large,plush headboards. “There aresome feminine features here tosoften the masculinearchitecture,” Borrego says.Rather like wrapping acashmere pashmina aroundyour shoulders when wearing aBeckham dress and stilettos.Both apartments are for sale

for £3.5million throughDouglas & Gordon.Carol Lewis

with Strutt & Parker

COVER STORYwhere you might capitalise on yourdevelopment skills. Louw says: “You keepyour ear to the ground, read theproperty press, subscribe to estateagents’ newsletters and when you drivearound, look carefully. You can tell whenan area is starting to change and emerge.There is the appearance of independentshops, little bakeries and restaurants —but you need to get there beforeWaitrose, because it’s too late then.”Meanwhile, the Samuels brothers’

strategy is to focus on the prime areaswhere super-prime buyers are migrating.“We usually do properties in Chelsea,South Kensington or Notting Hill to a‘Knightsbridge finish’. We are trying toentice the Knightsbridge buyer who hasbeen priced out— at the moment a lotof buyers don’t want to pay the higherstamp duty. We are very specific onwhich streets and squares we will buy.”

Know your marketWhen it comes to interior design youneed to know your market anddifferentiate yourself from the pack.“I think the typical buyer would be a

creative person, probably British ratherthan foreign, with an appetite forsomething a bit different,” says Louw,of his Battersea and Streathamdevelopments.Adam Pinion has an entirely different

client in Croatia: “Our customers tend tocome from eastern Europe.

They used to come toCroatia for holidayswhen they wereyounger andnow want tobring theirchildren. Weput a modernedge onDalmatianhomes: theyare waterside

which isunusual, and so

we want to makethe most of the views

with lots of windows andopen spaces.”Of course, once your development

company is large enough— and if youhave secured clients — you can offera smorgasbord of opportunities. IainJohnston, the design director at Rigby &Rigby, which has completed 100 projectsin its ten-year existence, says they spenda lot of time in consultation with clientsand offer the services of 25 interiordesigners through a joint venture withanother company.“We ask key questions such as

whether they travel with staff, how oftenthey are in the UK, whether they cook . . .everything about their lifestyle. Forinstance, if someone was working on UStime and needed to get up super earlywe would install a shower outside themaster suite so the rest of the familywasn’t woken,” Johnston says.

SucceedFinally, make sure you succeed. Whetherit is selling for a profit of £5,000 or£5million, you need to make money—otherwise it’s just a hobby.Ben Samuels says: “We have set record

prices on everything we have sold todate. We buy in areas that cost less thansuper prime but then renovate themto a super-prime standard and ask20 per cent more than what anyoneelse has achieved in that area before.”Some 18 out of the 19 apartments

in Dodd’s latest development,Concord House, exchanged withineight months of being launchedwith the 3,900 sq ft penthouse sellingfor £1.68 million — setting a newrecord for a Birmingham city-centreapartment.

which they bought at auction andrenovated. They then progressed to ahouse before tackling anything larger.They have just completed the conversionof Victoria Beckham’s design studio andoffices into two apartments in Battersea(see below) and are now starting on anambitious project to turn 14 garages inStreatham into two family houses.The Samuels brothers have similarly

worked their way up, starting on flatsand mews houses before tackling theirlatest project— a seven-storey,8,055 sq ft, townhouse in ChesterSquare, Belgravia, which has gone onthe market for £32.5 million.Likewise, Dodd has moved on

from renovating terracedhouses for a £5,000 profit.His latest developmentis Concord House, awarehouse conversionin Birmingham.

Look at the locationBirmingham or Belgravia,the principle is the same:you need to have a sixthsense on buying the rightproperty, at the right time in theright place.Dodd says: “I am very much going to

focus on central Birmingham. There isso much inward investment and goodnews about the city. There is GrandCentral, the new HSBC headquarters,the Paradise Circus regeneration andtalk of investment in the Snow Hill area,not to mention HS2— I won’t belooking anywhere else for a while. I haveidentified that there are people with abudget to spend in Birmingham, and notthe properties to spend it on.”It is a similar story in Croatia for

the Pinion brothers. “We saw theopportunity for high-end properties. Thekind of thing you would find in the southof France. People were coming in onsuperyachts but there wasn’t theaccommodation to match.”In London it is more difficult but with

enough research it ispossible to spot

People queued for up to 30 hours to buy in One York Square on the SouthbankPin & Pin are selling Villa Ivy on BracIsland, Croatia, for €2.8million

for £1.68 million — setting a new

ROB FALCONER PROPERTY PHOTOGRAPHY