Category Archives for "Off-market property sales"

Why property developers should target property investors to boost sales

The shift from homebuyer to renter continues in the UK

Property investors have always played a big part in the UK residential market. The role is set to get bigger. As the UK population grows, more homes will be needed. The government knows this and is diverting money and resource to boost new homebuilding. PwC forecasts that there will be 7.2 million households renting in the UK by 2025.

It has long been the assumption that many of those who rent do so as a stepping stone to buying their own home. While this may still be the case, a recent analysis of the English Housing Survey shows that the number of households that believe they will always rent is rising rapidly. This begs the question, should property developers refocus their sales efforts on buy-to-let investors?

1.75 million long-term renters and rising

Of the approximately 5.4 million households that rent in the UK today, 1.75 million now believe they will rent for the rest of their lives. That’s up by 50% since 2010.

This is the conclusion of analysis conducted by the Labour Party. It examined the English Housing Survey, and found that there are almost 600,000 more households that don’t expect to buy in the future than there were just eight years ago. Clearly, government policies to increase affordability and boost first-time buyer numbers is not working as hoped.

At this rate of growth, not only will the number of renters exceed the number of homeowners by 2030, but the number of permanent renters will exceed the number of temporary renters, too.

The owner-occupancy rate is falling

Not surprisingly, the owner-occupancy rate is falling, as it has been since 2003. A number of factors have been blamed for this – including the low numbers of new homes built and the rise in property prices. Even the fall in house prices prompted by the Global Financial Crisis failed to halt the shift from housebuyer to a home renter.

Today, the proportion of homeowners has fallen to 63%, from 71% in 2003.

As the population grows, renting will become the norm

Younger people are less likely to buy today than a decade ago. The fall in homeownership has been most marked in the under-45s. There are now one million fewer people in this age group who own a home than there were in 2010.

Affordability is an issue for this demographic, though so, too, is a lifestyle. Earlier this year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that young adults on middle incomes are now less than half as likely to own a home than they were 20 years ago. House price growth has outstripped wage growth to such an extent that homeownership is no longer affordable for many.

In addition, other surveys and studies have found that many younger people choose to rent for lifestyle reasons. They rent with friends, near where they work, and in places where leisure activities are on the doorstep.

Investors could be the major buying force in the UK property market

With homebuyer numbers reducing and renter numbers increasing, clearly, there is a structural shift taking place in the UK residential market. As renting becomes a long-term choice for increasing numbers of households, the attraction of investing in buy-to-let for the long-term increases, especially in the low-interest rate environment.

The UK’s growing population, the inability to build enough homes to meet supply, and the disparity between house price growth and wage growth, are all factors that underpin investment in UK residential.

What type of property do investors want to buy?

Essentially, property investors want to buy homes that are appealing to long-term tenants. These needs are aligned with those of homebuyers – if you are going to live in a property for a long time, you want it to be the right property.

An analysis made by the NHBC and Savills in May this year provided insight as to what it is that people want from a home: whether that home is in a high-density urban location, medium-density residential, or suburban homes within 3km or urban areas. It found that the main factors considered are:

• Minimum maintenance
• Off-street parking
• Location
• New home warranty
• Size and design of living space
• Quality of the neighbourhood
• Energy efficiency

(Read our article “What homes should developers sell in a bouncing property market?” for more.)

This is the type of property that property investors are keen to buy. To connect your development with waiting investors, ready to buy today, all you need to do is contact Castlereach. Then let us do the rest.

Call us today on 0207 923 5680.

Live with passion

Brett Alegre-Wood

Five ways we differ from other property developer sales channels

A sales strategy targeted at active property investors

Selling your property development before a brick has been laid is no easy task. Selling it when it is no more than a plot of land, a wedge of artist impressions, and perhaps a scale model is even more difficult. And selling a development off-market is another step further. This is what our sales team specialises in: off-plan, off-market sales to investors that gives your property development real step-change impetus at the beginning of its life.

There are five things we do that differentiate us from other sales channels. These strategies help us reach out to investors from around the world, giving you a wider and deeper base of potential buyers.

1.    We provide exceptional customer service

At such an early stage of development, we understand that our job is to provide an excellent service to investors. What we’re really selling is the promise that at some time in the future they will be the owner of a fantastic property that will be in demand from tenants.

We keep in touch with all our investor clients. We provide email newsletters, general research, and enormous amounts of educational resources. We find out what their objectives are, their timescales, and the extent of capital they wish to commit. And we build a very personal relationship.

2.    We sell investment potential, not homes

At this early stage, we concentrate on highlighting investment potential. It’s not a home yet, and nor will it be to our long-term investors. How do we do this?

We promote the developer’s record, of course, but we do much more. We provide investors with comprehensive research that describes the fundamentals that will drive the potential of their investment in the area. We also provide a  detailed projection of potential returns, based upon this extensive research. And we match all this to the investor profile that we have built up during the relationship-building phase.

3.    We never over-promise, but sell reality

We don’t promise what cannot be delivered. We prepare investors for possible delays in delivery, for example. We provide outline schedules and then manage the process of buying for the investor. Our services include strong relationships with the key professionals that the investor will need: mortgage brokers and solicitors, for example. By using well-qualified and recommended partners, investors are given extra confidence.

4.    We reiterate the investment potential of the property

We now concentrate on the rental potential of the property being bought and the potential for capital gains. We consider area demographics and provide evidence of how the property will appeal to the widest audience. We’ll also help the investor decide on the internal specs – the furniture, fixtures and fittings that will solidify tenant appeal and help to maximise rental income.

5.    We monitor and report

Investors want to see progress. Most will not be able to visit the site, so we do this for them. We provide an essential link between you, the investor’s professional network, and the investor. This helps us to manage expectations, while reassuring investors that the development is no longer a scale model, but a full-size reality.

The bottom line is that our investor buyers make excellent buying decisions driven by logical thinking, time after time. Very different to the emotional drivers of selling to homebuyers – and requiring a very different sales strategy.

Our investor clients become long-term holders of property, returning to us to source new property investment opportunities for them as they build and diversify their portfolios – as we help developers sell their early-stage off-plan property off-market, without the need for the developer to pay for largescale and expensive marketing.

Let your property development benefit from the Castlereach advantage. Call us today on 0207 923 5680.

Live with passion

Brett Alegre-Wood

Marketing your off-plan development in a crowded market

Four steps we take to promote your property through the sales funnel

The market for selling off-plan property has become a little more stressed lately. Take Brexit as an example. It’s weighing on people’s minds. The media is not doing the market any favours, either. Every good news story (and there are a lot of them) is introduced with the prefix ‘despite Brexit’. It makes many homebuyers and investors hesitant to buy property because they perceive that we’re all waiting for the economy to implode because of Brexit.

Further, in some areas, especially those that are being regenerated, so-called market experts have started talking about a glut of new properties, as the number of transactions in the property market slows down.

Despite all this, we aren’t experiencing a big slowdown in interest from our investors. Why? Because just like we did through the Global Financial Crisis, when we market your property development we do so to make it stand out from the crowd.

Here are four things that we do to stay at the forefront of investors’ minds, remind them of the long-term benefits of investing in the UK property market, and promote your property to interested investors.

1.    Identify the appeal of a development to identify off-plan investors

How can you develop a marketing plan if you don’t know who the potential residents will be? When we examine new developments for their potential to sell, uppermost in our considerations is who will want to live there. We want to know who the development is aimed at. It means understanding the location, and its appeal to residents.

We gain a deep understanding of the fabric of the local economy and community. Will it appeal to young families, empty nesters, or single professionals, for example? Is it in a bustling area with an eclectic nightlife, or does the location offer benefits to those seeking a rural, more gentle way of life?

It’s not enough to say a property or development is an ideal investment; we must show why it is so. Our investor clients are long-term investors. They want to know that there will be demand for rentals as well as from homebuyers. When we know who the target residents are, we can show investors that demand. Most importantly, we can market your development to the right investors in our database.

2.    Support investment decisions with regular property investment content

Property investors want to feel loved. They want to know that their property investment company cares about them. And we do. So, we provide a wealth of online content to investors. Content that educates informs, and builds relationships. From videos to blogs to eBooks, our material is continuous and consistent.

We publish content that takes an investor (and potential investors) on a journey from considering investment in the UK, to deciding to invest in a specific location. Throughout this journey, we are gathering information about these investors and website visitors. The last piece of the puzzle, of course, is to market directly and selectively to the most interested investors – those who have travelled all the way through our sales funnel.

We’ve found that our blog content for investors (see the Gladfish Academy) is one of our most powerful marketing tools. We publish five blogs every week, and the Gladfish blog is ranked in the top ten of the best real estate investment blogs on the planet.

3.    Highlight what makes your development different

At the stage of direct marketing, we expand our message by highlighting why an area is so good for investment, to why your development is the prime property in its location.

We figured out a long time ago that to sell best, a development needs to offer something that makes it stand out from the crowd. We explain to investors the main selling points and features of your development. For example a sustainable community; features such as 24/7 concierge or residents’ gyms; proximity to transport hubs; or within catchment areas of great schools. We then link these features to the properties for sale and the target residents. It helps make your development stand out as a great investment proposition.

4.    Reiterate the financial benefits of investing in your development

Now that we’ve taken investors from concept to reality, we show them how the numbers could stack up. They’ve already become excited by the prospect of capital growth and rental income, but we find that when they see this potential in black and white, it cements their interest.

We provide a two-year cash flow projection and cover different scenarios within those projections – rising interest rates, void periods, and so on. The investor now has a deep realisation that we have taken the investment view, by helping them answer the investor’s golden question, “How much return could I make by investing in this property?”

Property investors are no different from other investors. They want to know why they should invest, where they should invest, how they should invest, and what their investment is likely to return. In a crowded and uncertain market, our approach stands out from the crowd. It’s this approach that helped us to continue to sell and grow our business through the worst of the GFC, and its why our investors aren’t concerned by Brexit, Trump, or any other banana skin that the politicians throw at the market.

You don’t have to suffer from media-induced apathy in the property market. Call the Castlereach team on 0207 923 5680. Our partnership will help get your new build and off-plan development sales to where you need them to be, whatever the market conditions.

Live with passion

Brett Alegre-Wood

How property developers can use social media to hit off-plan sales goals

Maximum reach, minimum splash, utmost integrity

Recently, I was chatting with a developer who was keen to know how we use social media in our sales process. After all, it is an integral part of our strategy to guarantee sales for developers with whom we partner. It’s also a strategy that forms the backbone of our off-plan sales success.

In this article, I explain how we have developed our Property Launch Formula over the last two decades, and why it works so well.

What do the best salespeople do every day?

Figuring out how to use social media as a sales tool isn’t rocket science, but it does need you to understand what your best people do naturally every day. When we analysed what our best salespeople did so well, we were able to condense their incredible talents into six specific areas:

1. Positioning of company, product, and opportunity
2. Prospecting, and building rapport with new connections
3. Presenting opportunities, and ensuring that those opportunities were relevant to the prospect
4. Following up, ensuring constant contact and maximising the good work done to date
5. Closing a deal, and ensuring the sale runs smoothly
6. Maintaining contact and encouraging repeat purchases

Why social media is so important in the off-plan sales process

As social media apps started to take off, we realised that in the future people would use apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Quora as sources to make buying decisions. We also understood that each different social media app has a different audience and different use.

Our Property Launch Formula is designed to maximise the reach of each different social media app, targeting different types of investors and answering different investor needs. Some investors want information. Others want specific solutions. Swathes of investors want to be kept in touch with industry developments and investment opportunities. We mix and match our messages through social media to satisfy these and other needs.

Social media gives us the ability to replicate all six of the sales talents that we identified, but on a scale that human salespeople could never hope to achieve. We have used social media to build a sales funnel that takes investors through a journey from initial contact to purchase. It allows us to start this process with tens of thousands of prospects, before funnelling through to a list of hot, registered prospects.

This scale of contacts would require hundreds of salespeople to perform. Social media has enabled us to act more effectively and target your development at those investors who are most likely to buy at earlier stages of development.

We use 16 social media platforms in our Property Launch Formula, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Quora.

Here are a few of the ways in which our social media strategies replicate and enhance what the best salespeople do:

Prospecting

Social media is an exceptional tool for prospecting when it is used correctly. We target keywords and search phrases to attract investors who are considering investment in the UK property market. They are already looking, and social media helps us to leapfrog the cold call phase of prospecting.

We offer these prospects. Why not reach out to them and offer your support and expertise? Establishing yourself as a useful resource is a strong step in the right direction. You can also use Twitter’s search function to search for keywords associated with pains some people have that might bring them to the solution you’re selling.

Familiarisation and building rapport

Through social media, we can begin to familiarise investors with our offering – driving them to our private investor’s arm, Gladfish, where they can access what is probably the largest property investment resource on the web today. This includes videos, podcasts, blogs, books and webinars all designed to introduce investors to new build property. Check it out at www.gladfish.com/academy.

In addition, our social media reach allows us to directly answer investor questions, and post information that serves to get investors familiar with an area before our off-market efforts begin in earnest.

Engagement and relationship building

We have an excellent record of building relationships, breeding investor loyalty, and encouraging repeat investment. Social media is integral to this process. Several social media channels are ideal for sharing content and adding value to a broad spectrum of investment needs. This is soft relationship building at its best.

Relationships are critical in any sales process. We found that social media accounts such as LinkedIn and Facebook are exceptional tools for maintaining these relationships.

Following up with interested investors

With all the preparation work done, we can launch to only those investors who are most interested in your development. This increases our chances of making sales. And allows our salespeople to concentrate on the end game in the sales process. We’ll share useful resources with these investors through our social media accounts, ensuring that our relationship, message, and your development are at the forefront of their investment plans.

Launching your development into the market

Our Property Launch Formula and social media reach is key to maintaining relationships with more than 50,000 active investors on our database. We’re able to segment these investors for specific marketing – for example if we wish to launch to specific countries.

But there is no need to worry about us making a big splash and disrupting price integrity. When we launch, it’s off-market all the way. The only public footprint will be the name of your development. Investors must log in to see everything else. Cash flow projections are only made available to registered investors who speak directly with the team. The only pricing information that will be posted online is the one that says, ‘Prices from’.

Our Property Launch Formula means you get the widest and deepest reach, without making ripples in the market.

Of course, this is only part of how we work with developers to maximise sales. To learn how we can customise our approach for your specific development and sales goals, call the team on 0207 923 5680. Our partnership will get your new build and off-plan development sales to where you need them to be.

Live with passion

Brett Alegre-Wood

7 Creative marketing strategies to boost off-plan property sales

How we ensure we reach out to the optimum target market

When you want to boost your off-plan property sales to property investors, it’s important to know how those property investors think. Our reach and communication strategy gets our property consultants into the hearts and minds of investors, whether from the UK or overseas.

We understand that off-plan property is not sold purely on the numbers. Investors today are more likely to put themselves in the shoes of their target market – people who want to rent or own a home where you are selling your off-plan property. We create narratives that sell lifestyle potential hand in hand with investment potential. Then we develop strategies to maximise the marketing message and reach as many potential investors as possible.

Here are seven key marketing strategies we employ to boost your off-plan property sales:

1.    We create strong lifestyle and investment descriptions

We work hard to write copy that highlights the best features of location and property. Those first few words are crucial, so we use power words that pack a punch. We’ll include property images and location photos as necessary to increase sensory impact.

2.    We optimise for online searches

If we’re selling off-market, we understand the need to market subtly. We write copy that educates and informs investors, leaving them with a desire to discover more. Contents are optimised so that those most interested in the opportunity can easily find it online. We include keywords and key phrases in our marketing copy and on our landing pages.

It encourages investors to not only discover and read about why they should invest in a specific location but also why the type of property you are building is best for investment. This method leads them through the sales funnel and enables us to capture their email details – from when we can personalise our marketing effort to the individual investor.

3.    We use email extensively

Having collected the email details of interested investors, we will begin our email marketing campaign. New leads are added to existing, and segmented for most effective penetration. We use email titles that create urgency to open and read. We include details about the investment opportunity, and a call-to-action as the next step. Often this is a link to a specially designed landing page.

We utilise autoresponder software to provide a seamless marketing experience, dependent upon investor actions.

4.    We create landing pages as two-way streets of information

We discover more information about prospective investors through landing pages. These pages are designed to capture investor info while giving away something for free. Perhaps a free-to-download investment guide. These help to increase our knowledge of what each investor registered with us wants. It also gives us the opportunity to take our marketing to the next level – personal contact.

5.    We use blog posts as marketing tools

Our writers are tasked to create blog posts that help the marketing process. These may be general or specific educational posts. These do several jobs for us. For example, they:

• Focus on identified keywords, which are used throughout the post to increase ranking
• Include contact details and a clickable contact route
• Include general and in-depth information to cement investment potential of the area or property type
• Always include a call-to-action, which prompts the reader to take the next step along the marketing funnel

6.    We leverage social media

We have extensive reach via social media and use Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter to promote our content and investment education.

Our Facebook business page aimed specifically at investors and showcase our track record. We’ll add Facebook posts to promote associated blog content. We use videos and photos and other imagery to encourage views and shares.

We schedule tweets on Twitter to keep interest flowing and augment tweets with images and links back to content and landing pages. Hashtags are used to help people find our tweets, and we ensure they are retweeted.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool to make connections with investors. We publish content that showcases our capability and connections with developers, and we work hard on expanding our connections in target markets.

7.    We are consistent throughout

Whichever channel we use to market the off-plan property, we ensure consistency of brand and message. We identify the target investor and use the most appropriate marketing strategies for them. When our target audience sees our marketing and other content in different locations they don’t become confused with different messages.

Throughout our content, marketing, and personal contact, we ensure that we highlight the investment potential of the off-plan property. We market to the investment needs of the investor, and the lifestyle needs of their tenant – combined, it’s a powerful message which ensures success.

Contact us today on + 44 207 923 5680, and we’ll start developing our segmented investor client lists specifically for marketing your off-plan property sales and design a soft marketing plan to produce outstanding results.

Live with passion,

Brett Alegre-Wood

How to sell your development before the ground is broken

Marketing tips to help off-plan property sales fly

In these difficult times, we’re receiving more calls than ever from developers who want to boost their sales. Some have already started the process of marketing. They’ve produced stylised brochures, an appealing website, and persuasive advertising. Others haven’t yet started putting together a marketing package.

With competition for off-plan property sales heating up, developers need to target their marketing efforts to reduce costs and increase sales success. We’ve put together these seven tips to ensure off-plan sales success, however early you want to sell your development even before the ground has been broken.

1.    Brand the development

Branding the development is essential. Naming a property gives it life, a vision in the eyes of property investors and home buyers. Let the name tell a story, perhaps of a previous life or shape of development – how about ‘The Potteries’ or ‘The Crescent’? A clear, crisp name gives your development personality. And personality sells.

2.    Emphasise lifestyle benefits

Home buyers want lifestyle benefits from their new home. So, too, the buy-to-let investors – it’s easier to find tenants when you are letting a lifestyle property. Emphasise locational benefits of your development. “Five minutes’ walk to the mainline station, and only 20 minutes from the city”; “In the heart of the city, where residents and businesses are benefiting from a massive regeneration programme.” Find the reason for people to want to live in a property in your development, and market to this desire.

3.    Go 3D with your floor plans

Standard 2D floor plans mean little to most people. They are simply lines on a piece of paper. Producing 3D floor plans turns a concept into something more real – especially important when there are no show homes to view.

A 3D floor plan, presented room by room and including furniture, fixtures and fittings, allows investors to visualise what it is they are buying, and space they are investing in.

4.    Build on locational benefits

Investors buy where property fundamentals are strongest. They want property near shops, schools, transport links, major employers and major investment. Trumpet the locational benefits of your development. We do.

We produce comprehensive area guides for investors, highlighting the reasons why investors should buy where you are developing. It is a powerful marketing tool on its own. When combined with your marketing resource, it becomes irresistible.

5.    Make an offer that investors can’t refuse

It takes courage for a property investor to buy a property that hasn’t yet been built. By the time we’re at the stage of marketing your development to investors, we have spent years developing trust and getting to know our property investor clients. To cement this trust and seal the deal, what better than a price point that savvy investors cannot refuse?

Your marketing brochure has done its job. Our area research has provided further impetus to the marketing message. The hook has been baited. A sensible pricing policy will reel in the investor. Switch down the price slightly, and switch up the investment opportunity from great to irresistible.

6.    Provide exclusivity

Early-stage off-plan success could be accelerated when you make an exclusive offer. Off-market marketing, to a targeted and already identified investor base. Properties that people will want to buy, in an area in which people want to invest, at a price that makes sense on all levels. And offered exclusively to a select group of investors. Suddenly, the irresistibility of your off-plan property sales is ratcheted up even higher.

The developers that do these three things will find their developments sell out, while others remain unsold.

7.    Good marketing sells off-plan property

When we work with developers, selling to our investor clients at home and abroad, we concentrate on marketing. The quality of our marketing materials helps sell your off-plan property. It provides a focal point to concentrate our face-to-face discussions.

Like you, we employ highly experienced and professional researchers, writers, copywriters, photographers and designers. We make certain our marketing materials echo the opportunity that your development offers.

Contact us today on + 44 207 923 5680. Together we’ll work to achieve your sales targets, and excel where other developers fail.

Live with passion,

Brett Alegre-Wood

Firecracker features that propel off-plan property sales

How a developer can sell when others around them fail

Off-plan property sales can be tough, especially when the market is slowing down, as it appears to be at present.

The hung parliament that resulted from general election 2017 was another blow. It has done nothing to instil confidence in a market still reeling from the UK electorate’s decision to leave the EU. This on its own, though, shouldn’t deter investors in regional off-plan property. But there are also other factors in play. Economic numbers have been mixed around the world. The recent Grenfell Tower tragedy is likely to deter homebuyers from considering a purchase in any tower block.

There will be developers who can still sell significant numbers of properties off-plan, despite a slowdown in a market that appears temporarily saturated. What is it they do that creates such success in their off-plan property sales? How do they achieve enough sales to pay for the development before it is completed? Where and how do Castlereach help developers hit their targets?

Here are three firecracker features of the most successful developers selling properties off plan.

A successful track record

When you have targets for your off-plan property sales, property investors want to know that their investment objectives will be met. They will have their property investment strategy designed to achieve this. They want to know that the developer they are buying from has a record of delivering developments to the quality anticipated and within the quoted timeframe.

Developers that have delivered multiple and similar projects in the past will have the experience needed to know how long a project will take to reach completion. Our investor clients want to know that a property they agree to buy – perhaps before ground has even been broken – is going to be delivered on time. They can then develop their investment strategy in line with this. It gives them a definitive completion date to aim for and allows them to arrange any required financing.

When we work with investors and offer them property investment opportunities, the investors know that we have already done due diligence investigations on the developer. We’ve assessed the viability of the development from its location investment potential, and from the ability of the developer to deliver on their promises.

The investor buys the property off plan and benefits from the potential of an increased value at the time of completion. The developer meets its targets more easily, because of our reach to the UK and overseas investors and the reputation we have built up with them.

Anticipation of residential living needs

A second feature of the most successful developers is that they anticipate the future lifestyle needs of the people who will inhabit their properties. They create places in which people want to live near to transport and recreational amenities, and with ‘in-house’ amenities that sell.

Such amenities may include elements like pre-wired communication boxes, for instance. It removes the need for a resident to lay cables around their home to wire in their entertainment systems, computers, television, and so on. Systems which connect audio in all rooms and increase energy efficiency are going to be in demand. Intercom services, with a video link to front gates, allow residents to welcome guests and vet visitors more easily may become a standard in the future.

Gyms, open spaces, communal swimming pools and the like all add value in today’s market because tomorrow’s residents are likely to desire such lifestyle features. State-of-the-art security and safety features are likely to be more sought after, because of the recent tragic events in Kensington.

Developers that know what their customers want will win. And this brings me to the third feature of red hot off-plan property sales: knowing the customer.

The best off-plan property sales are made when you know the customer

Investors today are more sophisticated. They have wider and easier access to information. They understand who their target market will be – whether they wish to sell for capital gain or rent for long-term income, as most of our investor clients do.

Blanket marketing doesn’t work anymore. In fact, it can do more harm than good, especially during those early-stage, off-market sales efforts. The best strategy to maximising off-plan property sales is to know your customer. When you understand the investor, you need only to market under the radar to those investors who have expressed a desire to invest in the type of property, area, and a price point which is being offered. The success ratio rises because you are marketing to those who are most likely to buy.

It can take years for an initial meeting to evolve to a level of trust and confidence. It is usually reserved for the personal relationships. We communicate constantly with investors. And use social media and email, voice, and SMS communication strategies. We hold seminars and webinars, and our property consultants are proactive. They discuss investment strategy and the latest property investment opportunities with their clients. We then provide investment education and research to cement buying decisions. It’s unrealistic for a developer to put effort into locating potential investors. And spending the time and effort to develop hundreds of individual relationships.

When we work with a developer, we do so because we are confident that:

• The location will provide investors with above-average returns through the long term
• The developer will deliver to quality specifications and on time
• We have the investor clients on board who are likely to be buyers

A deliberate strategy for off-plan property sales

Off-plan property sales don’t just happen. It’s a deliberate process, connecting the dots between plans and execution. Developers should evidence a track record of delivering a quality product on time. And homes that cater to people’s lifestyle needs. This helps to build trust with buyers. Those buyers must be targeted carefully and quietly. To do so, it’s imperative to know who they are and to have developed a meaningful investor relationship with them.

The developers who do these three things will find their developments sell out, while others remain unsold.

Contact us today on + 44 207 923 5680. Together we’ll work to achieve your sales targets, whatever the market condition.

Live with passion,

Brett Alegre-Wood

Leveraging investor reach to boost off-market property sales

We started marketing your development years ago

Off-market property sales in the post-general election era look set to get tougher. The UK and overseas investors may become more hesitant to commit funds to a market that could be unsettled, despite Theresa May’s claims of forming a government to ensure stability. However, while many press headlines in the coming weeks are likely to send shivers through the hearts and minds of some investors, we’ve witnessed an early uptick in positive interest.

Why are our investor clients more positive than the press?

Our investors are savvy people. By the time they invest in off-plan property opportunities, they are highly educated about the UK property market. When others see nothing but dark clouds of pessimism, our client base focuses on the silver lining.

UK property fundamentals remain intact. There are excess demand and a backlog of unsatisfied demand that stretches back years. The economy may be shaken, but is unlikely to be stirred. The nature of the election result will not alter the massive governmental infrastructure spending already pencilled in for the next decade. In fact, it may serve to loosen the purse strings a little, with the potential for greater investment in public services.

We’ve worked hard over many years to educate investors from the UK and overseas about the attractiveness and long-term qualities of UK property investment. And how better to invest than in early-stage off-plan developments?

Our marketing of developments begins months or even years before a client invests. A long time before we have selected the area, outstanding location, and developer and development.

Off-market property sales made with educated confidence

We actively promote property investment education. Our educational resource may be the most extensive, focused solely on property. It is centred on the Gladfish Blog, which consistently ranks in the top 100 investment blogs and websites for investors worldwide. Also, we provide investment education material which includes blogs, articles, newsletters, videos, podcasts, webinars, books and research.

Our Gladfish property consultants help to keep investors grounded. Our market news and commentary removes the BS and sensationalism preferred by traditional media. We tell things like they are, ensuring that investors understand how to analyse news and ignore misplaced views. It helps investors take a long-term view.

Consequently, we find that our clients take advantage of sluggish property markets caused by short-term shocks. They understand that it is the underlying property market fundamentals that drive long-term returns. Also, as we provide free investment education and unbiased market commentary, we build long-term relationships with investors. These investors benefit from our approach to research.

Selecting and recommending the best places to invest in property UK

While we provide investors with the knowledge and tools that enable them to undertake their property research, we, of course, go above and beyond. We do the research for them.

We’ve developed a Ripple Effect Pentagon and unique Hotspots Algorithm, which pinpoint the top performing areas for investment. These tools and techniques are easy for investors to understand, and have proven to be remarkably accurate in their forecasting capability.

We analyse 108 data points across 324 UK areas and identify those areas in which the property fundamentals are strongest. We rank these areas, so our clients can see at a glance the best places to invest in the UK property market. Then we produce detailed investment guides that walk investors through the specifics and dynamics of each area. And we allow investors to download these for free.

Drilling down to specific location

With the best areas identified, we then drill down to pinpoint specific locations. It is where those property fundamentals come most strongly into play. Locations within walking distance of transport – or near shops, for example – rank high on the list of positive pointers for investment potential. With location identified, we then search for the final piece in the jigsaw.

Developer and development – sold!

Throughout our process of education, research, and location selection, our clients’ confidence increases. We ensure that we do things right, and throughout communicate the necessity to be cautious. For example:

• Always undertake extensive research
• Never invest without completing comprehensive due diligence
• Invest with property fundamentals
• Overestimate costs, and underestimate income

The penultimate step in our long-term marketing strategy to connect long-term investors with developers is to carry out due diligence on developers and individual developments. When we put that final piece of marketing in place – offering a specific development to a highly targeted slice of our investor client base – we do so in the knowledge that every piece of the off-plan investment opportunity stacks up.

Our investors are already three-quarters of the way to making a buying decision by the time we market an off-plan property to them. We’ve guided them by:

• Educating, inspiring, and instilling confidence, no matter the market conditions.
• Collecting client data, and learning their investment preferences and objectives.
• Identifying area and location for investment.
• Marketing the best developments from the best developers, in the best locations, to investors who are already warm to the idea of investing upon our recommendation.

We’ve sold over £750 million of property across the UK since 2004. We’ve helped more than 2,500 property investors achieve their goals. And we’re still building. Investors from abroad are making up an increasingly large proportion of our business ­– aided by our international reach (for example, in 2015, we conducted client meetings in 11 different countries across Asia, the Middle East, and here in Europe and the UK).

The marketing of your development has already started. In fact, it began when we first met our investor clients who will buy your development – and that was before your development even hit the drawing board.

Contact us today on + 44 207 923 5680, and we’ll start developing our segmented investor client lists specifically for marketing your new build development.

Live with passion,

Brett Alegre-Wood