Intriguing to see Savills taking a stake in online estate agent Yopa earlier this month. This latest in a lengthening line of proptechs looking to eat the lunch of traditional players has two young members of the Daily Telegraph-owning Barclay family on board. Agents have, until now, scorned such disruptors in much the same way the music industry scorned free music service Napster in 1999. Note: Spotify is valued at $8bn (£5.6bn) today.
The threat to residential agents offering a full service for a percentage fee is coming from so-called “hybrid” agents: those offering cheap fixed prices and less cheap hand-holding. One, Purple Bricks, is gaining traction. The AIM-listed business set up by Wonga founder Errol Damelin and backed by high-profile fund manager Neil Woodford was valued at £320m this week. Note: Foxtons’ current market capitalisation is £408m.
What can be done? Easy. Let’s repeat what was said here on 31 January 2015. “Given the sheer number of start-ups, might it be prudent for high street agents to squash the start-ups by offering listing-only services? After all, 90% of the sellers taking up the cheapo offer are likely to plead to pay 1.5% once they realise how hellish the chain-driven process can be.”
The time for everyone to start offering hybrid services seems to be fast approaching.
The monument man
If Dr Lawrence Peter were still alive, he would be wagging his finger at Michael Bloomberg. For the cost of the eponymous news company’s London HQ opposite Cannon Street Station, EC4, looks set to top a monumental £900m by the time it is finished next summer.
The Canadian educator coined the Peter Principle, which wittily warns that “employees always rise to their level of incompetence”. Dr P also warned of “monumentalism”: the zenith of a company’s fortune is marked by building grand offices.
“With this building we are creating a lasting legacy,” says Bloomberg, at the top of the project website for the eight-storey, 1m sq ft block. “It will stand as a symbol of our past successes and our future ambitions.”
What will be called Bloomberg London contains 15,500 tonnes of steel – more than the Eiffel Tower. The Foster + Partners design is sheathed in 106,000 cubic feet of sandstone and 600 tonnes of bronze.
In 2012, Sir Robert McAlpine signed a £550m shell-and-core contract for the scheme, later winning the fit-out works for an undisclosed sum. A well-placed source says the project will cost a bit over £900m by the time desks come to be installed.
Bloomberg is not saying what is attributed to what, but the firm is not denying the £900m figure. The job is said to be running like clockwork. A delay of a year is put down to a huge find of Roman artefacts, including a cache of wooden writing tablets, at the site.
Less grand offices would cost less than £400 per sq ft. Bloomberg London looks set to cost £900 per sq ft. But you cannot put a price on a monument, can you? Well, yes. The 662,000 sq ft of net space could be sold for well over £1bn, should the heavens tumble.
Fifty years on, and on
To the National Gallery on Monday night and, barring accidents, to Abbey Road studios in north London on Thursday night, two events hosted by Sir Stuart Lipton and his vivacious wife, Lady Ruth.
The first was to celebrate 50 years in property, the second, 50 years of marriage. Guests on Monday were assured by the 73-year-old that “the best is yet to come”. Reference was made in speeches to the male host’s deeply annoying habit (if you are an architect) of grabbing drawings and scrawling on contrary ideas. Who came up with the ideas that allowed architect Lee Polisano to squeeze 1.4m sq ft into 22 Bishopsgate, EC2, is not known.
What is known is that the 62-floor AXA-funded tower with Lipton at the helm contains 400,000 sq ft more than the 73-storey Pinnacle, which never made it past the stump stage. “He’s on to me all the time,” sighed Polisano the other week.
