Interview: Rupert Collingwood on collaboration, corporates & the rise of the luxury property broker

'Our ambitions are not related to broker numbers but rather quality of service provision as well as brand reach,' says The London Broker boss.

Property entrepreneur Rupert Collingwood has been at the forefront of a major shift in the UK agency sector, pioneering the US-style brokerage model and assembling a growing roster of top dealmakers building their own brands. In conversation with PrimeResi, he reveals what’s been happening behind the scenes at The London Broker, why property marketing needs a rethink & how worldwide collaboration is delivering real results for clients…

The London Broker has recently joined Leading Real Estate Companies of the World; what does this mean for the business, your brokers on the ground – and clients?
I think I’m pretty well known for my belief in the power of collaboration in our industry, so we were delighted to be invited to join LeadingRE at the tail end of last year, and almost immediately started to see the benefits. I whizzed off to Dubai a week after signing the agreement for their Global Symposium where I met a host of topflight brokers from across the world. From the USA to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Thailand, Bulgaria, Germany and beyond. Our membership of LeadingRE enables us to reach well beyond our own network and collaborate in our clients’ best interests.

LeadingRE enables our brokers to showcase their clients’ listings to a huge global audience and it is another excellent route to market for our listings and brand. But it’s not just about the outbound leads or collaboration, but also inbound. We are truly gifted with our location here in London as it still has a draw for clients from around the world. Since becoming members, we have received multiple referrals from the many brokerage firms within the membership and these are then distributed amongst our brokers. Importantly many of these referrals are search requirements, and of course our brokerage model is well set up to assist clients both on their acquisitions and disposals.

Earlier this month our listings went live on both LeadingRE.com and Luxuryportfolio.com and their syndicated websites (Mansion Global, James Edition, Juwai, FT to name a few) and the enquires have already increased. As the only UK brokerage listing on their platform, we are very grateful to be able to provide such a powerful tool to our brokers to showcase their clients’ properties as well as gain coverage for the brand too. I should also add that its been a great pleasure to be able to meet so many individuals as they pass through London or on my own travels.

To date I have met delightful brokers from the US, Canada, Bulgaria, Thailand, Mauritius, Cyprus, China and South Korea. I am greatly looking forward to flying the flag at this year’s Global Symposium in Budapest in September.

A raft of well-known names have joined TLB recently; what are most citing as the main reason for leaving the corporate world behind?
We are very privileged to attract some of the best and most experienced names in the market and this is a source of enormous pride both for myself and the board. Since the beginning of the year we have welcomed five brokers, Roger Fagg, Darren Barlow, Olivia Kalfus, George Barbor and Pim Assen. Their reasons for branching out on their own and joining TLB are varied, but I think I can safely say that many have grown tired of a corporate environment which only seems to take with very little in the way of give.

What I mean by that is that understandably corporate agency is built upon a hierarchical management structure backed up by KPI matrix, which is great if you’re 18-30. Eventually though this structure becomes both irritating and nonsensical. Our brokers know what they’re doing, they don’t need a KPI to tell them. What’s more remuneration is an issue, a constant drive towards market share at the sake of profitability means good brokers are getting paid less, so its not hard to understand why those who are making significant contributions to their office turnover might look to where they can maximise the return for their market knowledge and experience.

Another key reason for them making the move is the freedom to offer the service they want to offer in the way they believe works for their client base and indeed for them.

“Going it alone is always a momentous decision. You hit a crossroads in life where you can stick at what you’re doing or take a risk. Having control of your destiny won out! There is a moment where you have the knowledge and ability so have to trust that you can achieve your goals. I branched out for freedom in my day, freedom financially and freedom to make my own decisions.” Olivia Kalfus

“I decided to branch out on my own to move away from big corporate life, capitalise on my extensive experience in the industry and provide a bespoke and excellent service for people looking to buy, sell or rent their homes” Roger Fagg

How many brokers do you now have on the books, and what are your ambitions for growth over the coming five years?
So we currently have 42 brokers both in the UK and around the world with a rather remarkable average of 20 years’ experience. In real terms however our ambitions are not related to broker numbers but rather quality of service provision for our brokers and clients as well as brand reach. We are in the process of opening our first international branch in Bangkok covering South East Asia with Darren Barlow. Darren has been instrumental in encouraging me to think globally and capitalise on our hard work here in London.

With this in mind, we are finalising a brand-new offering for our international brokers and the wider international market. We are already on our way towards this goal, although I am sure you’ll forgive me for not revealing the juicy details just yet. Of course the next five years are going to be interesting…so we will need to remain fleet footed in order to pivot where required. I envisage some significant changes/challenges that we may need to face head on.

Do the most successful brokers share any common attributes? Which territories or patches have been proving particularly fruitful this year?
The ability to advise their clients, using the strength of their knowledge and experience. I think it is fair to say that the last 24 months have not been a particularly easy ride for the London residential market.

Political and economic spanners being thrown in the works at every turn have made for a rough ride for both buyers and sellers. It is however in these tougher markets where length of service and experience really come into their own.

Ultimately the stock that bears the fruit is the stock that is well priced for the market conditions

In terms of fruitful territories, I think it’s a rather mixed bag, but ultimately the stock that bears the fruit is the stock that is well priced for the market conditions. That is not to say cheaper stock or more expensive stock but rather properties which represent the appropriate value for that individual listing, in that individual location, at that particular point in time.

In real terms this requires the broker to not only be able to draw on their huge experience, but also be able to inform and educate their vendors and indeed buyers of these specifics using the benefit of their experience. Moreover the huge strength in depth that we have at The London Broker means that there is almost always another member of the team who has seen any specific issue or indeed market before. Which I guess leads to another common attribute and that is taking part. Those who put in the most get out the most and that is a really noticeable trait amongst our most successful brokers.

How important is social media for your brokers? Are actual deals being generated via the various channels or are they more useful for personal brand-building?
As with all routes to market, they have their uses, but one really needs to understand them in order to capitalise on the investment, be it time and energy or spend. I can certainly confirm that deals are indeed being done via social media, both sales as well as valuations.

Our broker David Adams sold a country house for over £6mn as a result of a social campaign. We now contribute towards paid campaigns for each and every new property we list and in some cases these campaigns are generating more leads than the portals.

However the data appears to show that this is somewhat listing and market dependent, i.e. the demographic that the property appeals to has an impact on whether a social campaign will be of any real value or not.

We were recently instructed to sell an exceptional development on the Kent coast, Shoreline in Folkestone. We ran several campaigns on the different properties and generated a number of viewings, time will tell if they convert to sales, however the reach was significant.

For many of our brokers and indeed TLB as a whole, social media is primarily a brand building tool and it can also act as validation for our brokers and the wider team when clients or potential clients are making a choice as to who to work with. Social media is however only a part of a much larger whole when it comes to the marketing reach we provide for our brokers and their clients.

Are there any other new tech advances/features that are proving especially useful to the brokers or the business in general?
I love a bit of tech and we are regularly approached by new startups with curious and interesting new offerings. Of course, a good tech provider is a little bit like a good plumber, you don’t want to tell everyone about them as you might then lose your advantage.

However, in the interests of the wider community I will say that Listing Logic, our social media platform is excellent and the team we deal with including Matt Goddard are great. LL essentially helps us create the social ads I mentioned above automatically, it then feeds the leads back to the brokers without too much manual intervention. It essentially synchronises with our CRM enabling us to “fire and forget”. Whilst we’re on the topic of tech I do think that it is worth talking about a relatively noticeable phenomenon.

Much of my role involves working with software providers, joining the dots between the various systems in The London Broker “stack” and I would say that I have started to notice a rather unattractive trend of diminishing service alongside increasing bills. I talk to a lot of brokerage and agency owners, and I know many are experiencing the same thing. This is now such a noticeable trend across the whole tech space that it has been given a name “Enshittification”.

The UK market is not easy at the moment, and it is a real test as to the quality of your supplier partners as to how they treat their clients in tougher market conditions. Of course, suppliers will look at RPI or CPI to justify increasing their fees each year, however whilst their costs go up our income may well drop, with slower market conditions and longer transaction times. I think it is important that we make them aware of this at every opportunity. Especially as the prop tech space is now so wide ranging that, much like the agency market, there’s always someone willing to do the same job for less. Those I’m talking about will no doubt know who they are.

We hear there’s a portal in the works; can you tell us what’s being planned, and what are your thoughts on the current portal landscape in the UK?
So I wanted to tell you more, but I have since been sworn to secrecy so I am sorry to disappoint.

The current portal landscape in the UK is not great it must be said. It saddens me every month when I see how much we pay for portal providers to effectively sell back to us leads generated by them thanks to the information we provide to them for free. Honestly it’s insane. What’s more the public and indeed the industry’s reliance on the portals is actively damaging the marketplace. Buyers, tenants and indeed some agents now spend their time hiding behind their screens simply booking in viewings with little to no qualification in the middle.

This means that no end of time and money is wasted carrying out viewings with little to no prospect of success, either because the buyer is not in a position to purchase or because the property is not suitable. What’s more the CRM systems are sending out details to prospective applicants and buyers based on the loose information imported into those CRM’s by the portals.

It saddens me every month when I see how much we pay for portal providers to effectively sell back to us leads generated by them thanks to the information we provide to them for free…Honestly it’s insane

If the information going in is of poor quality, then the information being sent out won’t be much better, and so buyers will understandably become frustrated with the outcomes. I do wonder how much better our industry might be for all stakeholders if we took all of the money we collectively spend on the portals and funnelled it into other marketing streams which focused on quality rather than quantity. Similarly we could focus on promoting our own successes rather than driving traffic towards portals which by their very nature favour those with the most listings.

I also wonder how much better it might be for vendors if we moved away from the current matrix of success which seems to be based simply on “number of viewings” and focused again on quality.

Given the advances in technology over the last 20 years it does seem as though we should have cracked this nut a lot sooner.

How would you summarise the current mood in the London market, and do you have any predictions for the future direction of travel in 2024 and 2025?
A bit sticky…I am too old to fall for the trap of making predictions, sufficed to say I expect the outlook to remain the same for the time being. Of course, the outcome of the election will have an impact, it will be interesting to watch the currency fluctuations which follow if there is a change in government, but then again 50% of the planet’s population are going to the polls this year, so at least we know it’s not just us.

A reason to be cheerful of course is that it appears at last that inflation is under control which one might hope will lead to lower mortgage rates which should provide some lubrication to the market. Again however, this might be impacted by the result of the election, so it feels very much like a wait and see game. In real terms housing is a bit like bread and water, it’s a necessity and those who need to move will continue to move.

As an industry it is important that we are maintaining that constant dialogue with our clients and applicants, keeping them informed of what the various economic and political machinations mean for them. We can then help them all better understand their options and move them towards a successful purchase, sale or rental and thus hopefully get paid!

What’s your latest cultural recommendation (e.g. a book/film/exhibition that you have recently enjoyed)?
I am a bit of a political anorak and so in light of the recent change in government I have two recommendations. Firstly, Tim Shipman’s latest book “No Way Out, Brexit: From the Backstop to Boris”. It’s the third book in the series which have brilliantly encapsulated the chaos from 2014 onwards and reveal some of the detail which is often missed by those of us just reading the papers or watching the Ten O’Clock news.

The other is “The Plot; The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson” by Nadine Dorries, It’s a bit foil hat (conspiracy theory), but authentic, at least in my view.

Having said that, if you’re utterly sick of politics (reasonable) I particularly loved 3 Body Problem on Netflix. It’s an excellent adaptation of Liu Cixin’s novel of the same name. It’s quite complicated to follow but reading around the topics involved is really enjoyable for those interested in sci-fi! It’s also a trilogy and the next two seasons have recently been commissioned.