The Mayfair Office annual conference, dinner and awards evening is always a civilised affair. You are as unlikely to hear a ‘boo’ in the room as you are to glimpse a white sock.

This year’s event was held at the RAF Club in Piccadilly and gathered the great and the good of the UK and international firms that belong to the well-respected and long-established affiliation group headed up by the affable and ebullient Nick Churton.

A feature of the gathering, which it has to be said is mainly for the seniors of firms, is that there is a free exchange of ideas and a real sense of shared purpose to drive businesses forward – by the use of technology, training, purchasing power or, as entertainingly illustrated by the firm of Howard Cundey, the use of a family of goldfish to promote the business!

My favourite training tip of the meeting? This was a conversation with Neil Evans, the MD of the 11-branch West Wales Properties, who told me that he holds a video conference call with all the branches and at random picks on one to tell everybody what the headlines on Property Industry Eye are that day. What a great way to make sure staff are up to speed with all that is happening!

It was a real pleasure to share ‘honoured guest’ billing with Bob Scarff who was giving the keynote speech. In order to sing for my supper I merely had to take part in a panel discussion on the future of the estate agency industry. A subject well suited to my, ahem, shy and retiring willingness to offer an opinion on contentious issues of the day…

Bob’s presentation focused on the view that “technology has changed human behaviour, but human nature is still the same”. He illustrated the point by referring to the spectacular success of easyJet that was followed by the spectacular failure of easyCruise.

Stripping away the frills of a cruise liner leaves you with – a ferry. And while a ferry is something that some people need some of the time, if they are paying for and expecting a cruise, that is what needs to be delivered.

The analogy applies to estate agency. A minority of people want a no frills, relatively cheap service, and any agent not offering some form of this will lose out. For others, the full service option is the way they will choose to go.

The difficulty for full service agents is that they need to make clear to consumers the differences between themselves and cut-price outfits. And then it is essential that the full service is actually delivered.

Bob’s tips on how to check whether your firm is delivering are:

‘Make a list of ten reasons why a vendor should choose your full service over someone else’s no-frills.

Then give yourself a score out of ten for each of them on the basis of how consistently you deliver those things – the score that your most dissatisfied client would give.

If your total is 90 or more, then very well done, you need not worry about the future – or you’re kidding yourself.

If your total is between 60 and 90, then you have work to do.

If you’re less than 60, I seriously recommend that you get out before it’s too late.’

The panel discussion was on the inroads being made into the market by the likes of Purplebricks and the ways in which traditional agents can counter the perceived threats.

The consensus was that while in the short term new-style agents will take some market share by expending vast sums of money on promotion, their success will be relatively short-lived when the market tightens, stock diminishes, or sales volumes fall. They simply won’t be able to afford the continued promotional expenditure.

It was also suggested that, collectively, traditional agents should be far more proactive in publicising the benefits of ‘full service’ and that trade bodies could play a part in co-ordinating such an initiative.

After a convivial post-conference gathering in the bar, dinner was served. A piquant deep-fried patty of goats’ cheese preceded the chicken in mushroom sauce, followed by a competently blow-torched crème brulee that slipped down a treat. Coffee, chocolates and a generous modicum of Port rounded off the meal. ( I do realise how important the food element of any conference report is to our readers.)

Later, Nick Churton’s after-dinner speech was poignant, humorous and insightful. His closing words struck me as a usefully concise appraisal of the changing demographics of the market and the challenges that the world of agency faces.

“2016 has been a transformational year for many of us. Disruptors in the form of online only agents continue their assault on our industry – especially in the urban sector. But even in the country there are creeping signs of that influence. Whether this continues or not remains to be seen and depends a great deal on us, but changes, as Bob so brilliantly outlined this afternoon, will have to be made.

This is the challenge ahead. When fees are being squeezed and the cake is getting smaller, to not only maintain our brands but also to grow them.

It is a time of renaissance. If you think that sounds over the top, I don’t believe that it is. We certainly have a technology renaissance going on that will affect the industry forever. But there are other huge changes.

I can’t remember a time in my now pretty long working life when there has been such a period of generational change.

The baby-boomers are finally making way for the Millennials; Generation X to Generation Y, the analogue generation, some of whom can move forward, are fading.

The digital generation who won’t move back – nor need to – are becoming our increasing focus. And that will only grow in the years ahead.

But this new group do not think or act like the old one. The Baby Boomers could be relied upon incrementally to develop their parents’ ideas. The new generation have their own thoughts entirely.

They seem prepared, en-masse, to give the establishment a good kicking in a way past generations would never have done, nor been able to.

They are older when they buy property for the first time. They are far happier to rent than their parents were. They may not be so keen to take on older, larger properties, and are more reluctant than the last generation to repair, renovate and re-model.

They often prefer, instead, more compact homes built in thermally-efficient and ecologically-agreeable materials. They want to control the heat, security, lighting and garden irrigation from a beach in Thailand. Sometimes they prefer a holiday in Thailand to buying a property in the first place – a point of view their parents could never understand.

Millennials may sooner choose a new home to an old one – if they had the choice. Those baby-boomers who are in the market are now thinking retirement, often now preferring urban locations to be near convenient amenities such as shops, entertainment, transport and health services.

What will happen to our larger rural stock, I wonder? We will have to adapt to, and then control, this changing world. It will take all our experience, energy, resolve and ingenuity. We will have to learn new techniques and technologies and we will have to forget some old ones. I believe that we will have to work together like never before, and perhaps we should reassess our approach to sales altogether.”


Well said, Nick. And thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable time in the company of those who, as Bob Scarff tweeted, are ‘proper estate agents’.