Philip Marley’s career in business started when he was 11 years old – foraging in a Super Skip in north Dublin. He would visit the nearby printers every week, climb into the giant bins and spend hours searching for damaged notebooks before selling them on to his school for the children on book grants.
When he was 14 he taught himself to fix car washes and used his new-found skill to build up his first business by undercutting all the local mechanics. By the age of 15 he had a team of 12 classmates working for him.
After a brief foray into Chippendale territory – “In my early 20s I managed a male strip group called the Celtic Knights our slogan was ‘100% prime Irish beef’,” – and a spell in advertising, the Irishman set his sights on property in general and student housing in particular in 2003. A decade on, he is running a multi-million-pound property company, and the 41-year-old has grand plans to introduce a new way of living to London, LA and eventually to cities worldwide. He is looking for sites for his common-interest communities concept – the idea that people with similar backgrounds, situations, professions and interests would benefit from living together in one development. And he is convinced the timing couldn’t be better: “The UK is desperate for new ideas regarding repurposing real estate,” he says. “Developers are desperate for solutions. This is the answer.”
It is a characteristically bold claim and whether Marley will be able to pull it off remains to be seen. He has financial backing from a Bahraini bank to develop an Arab-only residence in London EC1 or EC2 as well as a similar scheme for nurses in the capital and a development for actors in LA.
Sitting in his recently purchased four-storey Chelsea townhouse amid a flurry of activity courtesy of new girlfriend – Real Housewives of Beverly Hills TV star Dana Wilkey – and her friend Stacey as they bustle about in a whirlwind of stiletto boots and fur coats, Marley defends his take on modern living, insisting it will not create ghettos.
Better together
Marley talks a good game when it comes to his latest plan for property. The problem is that he exudes so much confidence – “In 10 years’ time I predict there will be 10,000 common-interest living units around the world,” – it’s hard to keep the faith in the dream as an unbiased bystander.
But his track record is impressive. A year after setting up housing developer Ely Property Group in 2003, he floated it on the London Stock Exchange and sold it for £30m just 12 months later. Now he has his sights set on a bigger prize.
“No one has done this before,” he says of his common-interest community concept. “What I am developing will see people paying a premium rate of around 15-20% on the standard rate of the area to live together with people who are similar to them. It is like a real-world social-media site. Facebook has changed the world and people have created their own online communities. I am harnessing this and turning it back into a reality, offering people the chance to live together as part of a common-interest community in real life rather than just connecting online.
London and LA have been picked as the perfect test bed locations and Marley is confident that the UK capital is ready for the concept: “Anyone who is sitting on a building that is not performing should come and find us,” he says.
“We are looking for two sites in London at the moment – one for a nurses’ community and one for an Arab-only community where there will be a mosque on site and the entire development will be Sharia-compliant. This project will be aimed at young Saudis and will need to accommodate 500 people. We will be able to get top dollar for buildings that no one else will be able to deliver in that area because of that 15-20% premium.”
Financially it sounds tempting. But questions have already been raised over the danger of creating ghettos: “This idea will result in quite the opposite,” insists Marley. “Abandonment creates ghettos and this couldn’t be further from that. This is about people living together, helping each other out and supporting each other.”
He uses the two pipeline plans in LA – developments for actors and single mothers – as examples: “If you are a young actor moving from overseas to LA then the idea is that there is a village for you to live in that will help you find out where to get the best headshots and when and where auditions are happening. I have been asked to look into a similar plan for single mothers – they can form a network which would free them up to work and date.
“We have identified at least 50 common-interest groups here in the UK who would love to live together – including Brazilians, Arabs, Irish people, Christians, nurses.”
Bankruptcy should be a badge of honour
Marley’s refusal to back down or move an inch on his idea certainly offers an insight into the dogged determination that has got him to where he is today. He is loud, focused and open – happily offering his thoughts on everything from his first kiss with Dana through to the weakening of manhood (see below). There is a marked difference between him and his Irish counterparts, such as Ballymore chief executive Sean Mulryan and Laing O’Rourke boss Ray O’Rourke, who are often described as being quiet, private and shy. Little surprise that Marley has an opinion on this: “It could be linked to the fact that the Irish media has for years been very anti-Irish property developers and construction bosses,” he says. “They have been vilified and wrongly blamed for causing the recession. It wasn’t down to the developers – we should have let the banks fail.”
Though Marley has never gone bankrupt himself, he has strong views on the subject in light of the financial situation in Ireland.
“In Ireland there are draconian banking rules, so a lot of Irish firms have come to the UK to go bust. And that’s no bad thing. If someone takes personal risks and makes personal guarantees to create jobs, bankruptcy should be a badge of honour once. Twice, not so much. Three times, you should get out completely.”
And his confidence in his new venture remains rock solid.
If the common-interest living doesn’t work out there is always his plan to co-produce a reality TV show with Dana, entitled Rich and Ditched, which will investigate the trials and tribulations of being loaded and divorced in your 40s. And if that doesn’t haul in the ratings, he could always return to serving up hunks of prime Irish beef.
Marley muses on…
…the biggest heist in history
“Something I feel very strongly about today is fighting for the common man. Anyone who bought a house between 2005 and 2007 in the UK or Ireland has fallen victim to a cosy cartel. Valuers and banks, so-called pillars of responsibility, lent individuals money based on valuations ultimately regulated by the banks and now, with values through the floor, expect these individuals to pick up the pieces in a market they created and inflated.
“No valuer has been sued on a residential level, which is a disgrace. They pulled off the biggest fucking heist in history and they got away with it. In Ireland we have a particularly crazy situation because the government has guaranteed the banks.
“This means that if someone can’t pay off their mortgage then you will have to. We are our brothers’ keepers in a debt chain gang and we are shackled to each other.”
…manhood
“It’s at an all-time low, manhood. This has been a very male recession. Most of the jobs lost have been man jobs and men derive a huge amount of self worth from what they do. This has left a lot of men feeling like empty vessels. It must be disappointing for single women.”
