Imagine being tasked with growing a property business in London and across Western Europe in one of the most unique economic environments at just 28 years old.
The last time the world experienced an economic shake-up like this Marie-Julie Gheysens would have been just 12 years old. But this is a woman wiser than her years and a woman ready, willing and able to take Ghelamco through the next stage of its growth.
The electric-blue jacket and high heels-wearing Gheysens is turbo-charged. This is a woman who likes to be busy, likes to get things done and is unapologetic for being both young and female in a world that is largely the opposite.
“I come into the room and I’m like, what’s the action? What do I need to do?” she says, adding that seeing her parents build Ghelamco from humble beginnings in 1985 to the £800m-plus Belgium-based business it is today is what keeps her focused on working hard every single second of the day.
“I have seen the entrepreneurial and hard-working spirit,” she says. “I have so much respect for what my parents have done from scratch that if I am not working for one second, I feel bad. It’s like an innate fire and energy that is continuously pushing me.”
And it is that continual drive that has landed Gheysens the role of driving the business’s expansion into London, while her brothers look after other parts of the business – Michael leading on development projects and Simon on its co-working platform.
London debut
While Gheysens first moved to London 11 years ago, aged 17, Ghelamco made its debut investment in the capital in 2020, buying a temporary car park site at 225 City Road, EC1, just as Covid struck. It could have been enough to turn the investor and a then 26-year-old Gheysens off, but Covid, the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the following economic uncertainty seems to just drive her forward.
“All I see is positivity,” says Gheysens. “We need to go. There is still so much demand for what we do, and this just challenges us to think more.”
And the company did just go with 225 City Road. The site, which topped out in September 2022, has now been transformed into the Arc, a 350,000 sq ft mixed-use scheme comprising around 150,000 sq ft of offices and 100 luxury, sustainable homes. The homes are selling and talks are under way with a number of firms for the office space, while Asian supermarket Tian Tian has already been secured as an anchor retail tenant.
But the Arc is just the start of the firm’s growth in London. “We want to create a really strong foundation here,” says Gheysens. “We want people to know that we are not just here for the short term.”
With a growing team in the UK office, Gheysens says she is looking across the capital for opportunities. Across Europe the business has grown its pipeline to almost 1m sq m over the past five years. She says the firm has “very much the same ambitions here”.
“If we go somewhere, we want to do it well. We put our full energy towards it. We always look at what an area needs. It is always about integration. It is about creating,” she says. “We really want to strive towards creating unique experiences like we have at the Arc. And when we see a gap, we’ll dive in there.”
She adds: “The current inflationary climate pushes us to deliver a truly worthy product that demonstrates value for the customer. We have a growth mandate for both office and residential, but most importantly an appetite for a mix of asset classes that creates an experience and brings life to the surface.”
For Gheysens, it is about finding the right project that the business can get working on at speed. She does not like to dilly-dally. Gheysens will admit herself that she is “go, go, go” and that she wants to operate at speed.
“I am very lucky that there is no-one pressuring me, but we do all need to get things done. But this is the natural way of who we are as a family,” she says. “Why wait until tomorrow when we can do it today?”
The UK is a market where people hear the word ‘risk’ and then cover their mouths, whereas we are very much about finding the solution and taking a calculated risk
Marie-Julie Gheysens, Ghelamco
The USP
For her, the USP Ghelamco brings to a project is its focus on sustainability and tech, and if a project takes too long to get through planning, to construct and get operational, there is a very real possibility that the technologies it wants to use, the sustainability measures it wants to implement, will already be out of date.
Her focus is on finding sites where the company can build in less than two years – just like 225 City Road – and to do that she likes to explore. Specifically, to wander the streets of London in the evening – when it’s dark so people can’t see her interest in sites and hike the prices, she jokes – to get a feel for what Ghelamco can bring to the city.
“London itself is a country,” she says. “From Shoreditch towards Islington, towards Clapham to London Fields and so forth, all the different zones. There is just so much to discover each day. I still go for different walking tours because I am a very visual person. I like to map everything, because to truly stand behind a development you really need to know your surroundings. So, the first thing to do is walk and walk and walk.”
Alongside understanding the feel of the area is making sure the chosen plot is a place where the business can create a space that it would itself want to spend time in. For Ghelamco, it is essential the property can deliver on its sustainability ambitions. All Ghelamco buildings must be electric and they must be delivered to BREEAM Excellent as a minimum, with an Outstanding rating the ambition.
Sites have already been identified, and while Gheysens remains tight-lipped on exact acquisitions, its next project is likely to pop up on the south side of the River Thames. More will follow.
Despite the economic struggles, a fall-off in investment in London and a new rhetoric of London losing out to some of its European peers, Gheysens remains firmly pro-UK.
“The UK is a market where people hear the word ‘risk’ and then cover their mouths, whereas we are very much about finding the solution and taking a calculated risk,” she says.
“I think it is still a really strong and optimistic market,” she adds. “We are actually getting some really strong sales and people are being more decisive. I am always optimistic, but we do need to weather the storm together.”
At 28, with a long future ahead of her at the family business, it is essential Gheysens is positive about the years ahead. She is unapologetic about it and suggests you should be too.
“I think it is important for everyone out there to just keep believing in yourself, just keep improving, keep bettering yourself and have trust in the foundation of who you are.”
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