Diary of an agent: Moreas Madani
Moreas Madani is a partner in Knight Frank’s Prime Central London Developments team and the Middle East Global Wealth Ambassador. Having worked in the property industry for almost 18 years, Moreas advises developers and ultra-high net worth individuals in the prime central London market.
5 minutes to read
Here, Moreas discusses how coronavirus has impacted the London new homes market. While coronavirus has hit London new homes sales, new enquiries and virtual viewings are on the rise. But given the predicted economic contraction, Knight Franks forecasts that the number of home sales in 2020 will decline by 526,000, a fall of 38% on 2019 transaction levels.
How is the lockdown impacting your working life?
On a personal level, working from home is both rewarding and challenging. Because I’m no longer commuting, I’m getting to spend more time than my family than I normally would, and I’m particularly enjoying being able to do bath and bed-time with my two-year old daughter. On the other hand, trying to work in a busy family environment can be something of a balancing act!
What is your morning routine?
I wake up at 6am, feed our cat and dog, take a short walk, and have breakfast around 7am before getting ready for the day. My wife and I alternate preparing breakfast for our daughter, and then I check emails before joining a daily 9am conference call with colleagues in the Prime Central London team.
This daily call helps everyone get focused for the day ahead and gives us a chance to share information and news. Since we’re no longer physically sitting together, I think it’s really important that we carve out some time each day to check in and catch up. Isolation can be lonely, so keeping our team spirit up, staying connected and keeping each other motivated is paramount.
I often join the Global Wealth weekly meetings; this is where we discuss £10m-plus buyer activity in the market. We are seeing a number of new, good quality leads in this market. While buyers can’t physically view at the moment, many are improving their market intel, making enquiries and conducting virtual viewings so they can move quickly when things return to normal.
Which areas of the market are most active?
We’ve been talking a lot recently about activity in the sub £2,000 per sq ft market. This section of the new homes market is already very well set up to help people buy homes based on video viewings and floor plans.
That said, we’ve also started to see increased activity and enquiries in the prime market, over £3,000 per sq ft.
Who is buying and what kind of opportunistic investing are you seeing?
We are still seeing international interest, particularly from China and the Middle East. Not only are international buyers accustomed to buying off-plan, but they are also keen to take advantage of the current currency play. We’ve also received multiple recent enquiries from domestic UK buyers, as well as from buyers in Europe and the US.
"And then there are the cash-rich investors who are looking to do some big deals, but in return they are looking for big discounts. Currently, we don’t have any developer clients who are willing to sell at those levels"
What is happening with existing deals?
We are progressing old deals and constantly speaking to buyers to keep them updated. We are also in regular contact with clients to see how their developments are progressing and whether we need to adjust completion dates or set up new strategies for marketing. Keeping these regular touch points ensures that they know we are always here to help.
We haven’t lost any existing sales since the lockdown, even though there is ambiguity over when they can complete. One buyer is renting but luckily they are doing this through Knight Frank. This means we can work with our Lettings team to try and secure a three-month extension to the rental contract, which will mitigate any delay to the completion of her new property.
What has surprised you?
What’s really interesting is that, although enquiries dropped off about three weeks ago, they are beginning to pick up again. People are sitting at home with time on their hands, and many are using it to do their research – looking at property portals and investigating what’s out there.
There is a psychological element to this too. This period of lockdown is frustrating for everyone, and having a project or setting your sights on the future for when restrictions are lifted, can really help improve mental health.
Humans are far more adaptable than we sometimes give ourselves credit for. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised about how many of my clients are happy to meet virtually instead of face-to-face. By harnessing technology and offering other options for meeting and viewing properties virtually, I have been able to maintain my client relationships as normal.
One or two buyers in the £10-15m bracket are making offers. One deal we are working on currently is with a 28-year old entrepreneur based in London. She passed one of our schemes during her daily walk and got in touch expressing an interest. We sent her a video link, she made an offer and things are progressing. She’s hoping to be in by June. While this is an anomaly, as buyers at this level typically want to view the property before buying, it is extremely encouraging, and shows that there is still life in the market.
How do you think the pandemic will influence the property industry in the long term?
I think flexi-working and working from home will become increasingly common. This period of lockdown has shown us that, with the right technology and systems in place, we really can be very adaptable and work from anywhere.
I think as a country we are very resilient; as a society we have gone through a number of turbulent and disruptive events in the past, but we always come together and get through them together.
In the UK there is a strong culture of getting up, dusting yourself off, and carrying on. I suspect that we will be back to relative normality before long, but I have no doubt this situation will impact not only the way we work, but the way we buy and sell property, too.