Name and business title: George Cardale, Head of Residential Development Sales UK, Savills.
Where is your firm selling? We sell new build and refurbished property across the UK out of 22 dedicated centres working alongside our 83 residential offices.
What types of Property are on offer? We generally focus on the middle, upper and prime markets of our chosen geographical areas, selling everything from studios through to mansion houses.
How much does a new home cost to buy? Our clients' properties range from £65,000 for a studio in Newport through to over £100m for our most prestigious London properties.
What makes a new home stand out from the crowd? We are lucky to work with some of the best housebuilders in the UK. The old issues of design, specification finish and services are all important, but we are finding our buyers are now also interested in a property's eco-standards and security is also becoming important. In London especially, the focus is very much on the amenities and services a new home can provide such as concierge, underground parking and gym or swimming pool.
How have you noticed any particular trends recently? The biggest change between the peak of 2007 and a more normal market in 2013 is the importance of the owner occupier. In 2007, around 60% of our buyers were buy-to-let investors, but that has fallen to around 30%, and now around 70% of our buyers are owner occupiers.
This means that our industry needs to have a greater attention to detail with regards to design, specification, finishes and services.
We also noticed a growing trend in the number of downsizers who are purchasing prime property from us across the UK, often selling their family home, donating some funds to their children, and buying a second property abroad.
We have also experienced the return of the off plan purchaser, since 2010 when the level of new build properties available began to fall, and buyers were keen to secure the right home.
The importance of the international market should not be underestimated; last year we took schemes located in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London to South East Asia and experienced some very positive sales results for our clients.
Is your company currently offering any incentives? We have noticed a peak in activity since the NewBuy scheme was announced on 1 April, however many of our buyers at the higher end of the market are not mortgage reliant.
Which new development potentially offers the best property investment prospects? There are clearly three important drivers of any investment purchase. Firstly to ensure there is a strong rental demand, secondly to ensure that there will be strong capital growth and thirdly that the property will be as maintenance free as possible and properly serviced.
My view is that new homes in many of our locations offer this magic mix of elements. We can also see positive house price inflation across most of the UK for the next five years according to Savills research
What are Savills' USP's?We have a great network of people and offices across the globe. We have a really collegiate attitude to working together, and regularly get referrals from far-flung locations such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
We have a market leading residential brand, we achieve over 1m hits on our website each month and have passionate and dedicated experts who are heavily results driven. In 2012 our team increased new build sales by 20% year on year, in a same-size market, suggesting significant increase in market share.
We also have a very wide range of specialisms and expertise across our offices with over 300 different work streams, which means that we are able to look after all of our clients property needs across the spectrum.
Our services within Residential Development Sales provide our clients with specialist knowledge and agency services from the inception to end of a scheme. We aim to ensure that the right product is built in the right location at the right price, so when we take the product to market we sell at optimum prices and sales rates.
We also have extensive experience of marketing London and UK based residential developments in South East Asia, Middle East and Russia. We target our local contacts, undertake private presentations and stage exhibitions. We are also continuing to explore exciting opportunities, targeting new markets across the globe.
We are very good at retaining our staff, so many of the people I work with I have known for the last 15 years, which is a great feeling.
Have any of your clients ever won a What House award? We act for many award-winning developers across the UK. In fact, Savills have recently won the Property Week UK Sales Agent of the year award which we were very proud to win, and is testament to our dedication and expertise.