Haute Residence continued its industry-leading series of webinars with a talk on the current state of the luxury real estate market in the United Kingdom, featuring special guest Thomas Balashev, Founder of Montague Real Estate and Monta Capital Mayfair, based in London.
Balashev spoke at length about the UK market and how it has managed through the COVID-19 pandemic. He was hosted by Haute Living's April Donelson, who also asked him about the beginnings and growth of Montague Real Estate.
Watch the webinar below.
Highlight quotes from Balashev:
"Montague Real Estate was an accident. I sold out my diamond business in 2014. On a trip to Portugal, I came across a luxury real estate developer from Paris. I was inspired to what the real estate industry was like from an agent's point of view and said to myself that I would be moving out of the diamond market. I understood the luxury market and buyer. It was the time for me to get into real estate."
"We like to see ourselves as where wealth management, meets real estate, meets private banking. It's a melting pot where you give above average service to a client as they would be accustomed to in private banking and wealth management, but we do it for real estate."
"If we can learn anything, it's that you have to be adaptable."
"In the UK, from September through the end of the year, I think reality will set in when people release their profit and loss statements for the quarter. The real severity of COVID on the economy will have an impact, and then we'll see how real estate looks, but right now there are deals to be done. If you are cash rich and in the market, you can buy properties for pennies on the pound."
"In the U.S., it's ok to take ownership of making something good out of a bad situation. In the UK, we don't do that enough. From a business standpoint, we have had a good past three months, and we are grateful for it."
"I'm looking forward to Art Basel in Miami, and going to New York. The only thing stopping me is being able to jump on a plane. Once those borders open, there will be craziness for the next two years."
"We will be in three continents by Spring 2021. I'm so proud of the team we have here, we do an incredible job from London, but we need to be in those regions if we're going to keep growing. I'm in love with the U.S. and have wanted to have an office there."
"We have seen inquiries from Hong Kong and Asia quadruple over the last months."
"If you have a willing buyer and seller, it's easy to do a deal. For us, to grow our brand and compete on a global level, we have to be better than the competition. You can't be nearly as good; you have to be better. The key is treating the people that work with you as well as you would treat clients."
"Anyone that thinks they want to do something in real estate, I saw go for it. The worst case scenario is you're wrong and you have to step back and reevaluate."
Watch more webinars curated by Haute Residence at www.hauteresidence.com.
Thomas Balashev
