It’s not easy to find out just how much business the UK’s top buying agencies are doing these days. Estimates vary wildly – and there’s no shortage of bluster – so it’s interesting when one of the big players tots up its figures over the last few years.
Seven years after launching from a loft in North London, Camilla Dell’s Black Brick claims to be closing in on a whopping £500m-worth of property acquired for its clients to date, racing to nearly £100m-worth in this financial year alone.
In all, there’s been nearly 200 deals made by the team since 2007, with 71% of the client base buying as owner-occupiers and the rest as investors; 75% are based overseas.
The firm did £30m-worth of transactions as a two-man start-up in year one, and appeared to defy the slowdown by increasing this figure by a pretty remarkable 60% to £74m in 2008 (a year best forgotten for many others).
The now nine-strong firm is planning to go big on property management in 2014 and will soon be introducing commercial property services to run alongside its established resi offering. Other revenue streams include a property concierge and a “Vacant Care Service”, which looks after their clients’ properties when they’re away.
