When I open the paper, I mostly read about what cannot be done. Tighter rules, Box 3, construction costs going through the roof, grid congestion and a market that has ground to a halt. All of it is true. And still I sit down every week with people who are buying and selling.
The days when you put a home on Funda with a few decent photos and then sat back are over. What replaces that is more work. It also pays off better.
We only go to market when a home is ready for it
Buyers have become more careful, I notice that every day. But careful is not the same as absent. They are still willing to pay, as long as the picture is right. Not roughly right, right down to the details.
So with us a home only goes to market once it is genuinely ready. And that means we look at solutions you would not expect from an agent:
- A painter or a maintenance crew comes in first. Small things are often what a buyer adds up in his head to a large number.
- Unused space becomes a bedroom. An attic corner or an oversized landing is sometimes a room nobody had counted.
- We buy a parking space to go with it. In this city that decides it for part of the buyers, and without one they simply look elsewhere.
- We arrange a temporary rental when a seller ends up between two homes.
Because a detail that is off always costs more at the negotiating table than it costs to fix beforehand. How we go about that is on our selling service page.
Why I am often at the table before anything is bought
I bring the same way of working to developers and investors. I prefer to be involved early, sometimes before a building or plot has even been bought.
Without foreign capital a good deal less gets built in this city. And when margins tighten, you have to get sharper. So I get involved from the first sketch: about permits, about feasibility, about a foundation survey when a building is split into apartments. But just as much about what you can add.
In Amsterdam-Zuid I recently advised putting in an elevator. That takes up floor space, and people flinch at that first. But an elevator opens up the top floors to buyers who would not otherwise come and look. You make choices like that at the start, not when the drawings are already with the city.
No off-the-shelf presentation
Once a property is ready, it asks for more than the standard presentation. Finding the right buyer comes down to trust, to feeling, to the moment somebody walks in and thinks: this is where I want to live.
Every special property has something of its own, and we translate that into images. We work with the same directors and videographers each time. For one home we have a pianist play in the living room and fly a drone over the water at first light. For another we bring in an open boat or a classic car. Not a film because it is expected, but images that suit whoever is going to live there.
On our showcase page you can see examples of each approach. How we turn that into a plan for each property is in Every sale is a production.
Across the border it works both ways
I like to look beyond the Dutch border. Through the Qualis network I help international buyers find their way in the greater Amsterdam area. And the other way around, I guide Dutch investors who want to put their capital into property abroad, from a second home to an investment in Ibiza.
What that involves, from financing to the way things work locally, is in Buying a second home abroad. Our own international listings are on the international page.
What I still believe
My conviction is simple: scarce property in a sought-after location holds its value. Shares swing, and nobody knows exactly what inflation will do. A good building in a good place is less sensitive to all that.
That is not a guarantee and I am not going to give one. Anyone buying or selling now without a plan will notice that the market has become less forgiving than it was a few years ago. Anyone who does have a plan still finds room. That is exactly where the work is.
This story in a supplement to Het Financieele Dagblad
An earlier version of this story appeared as a partner contribution in Contentway, a supplement to the Dutch financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad. The publication itself is in Dutch.
View the original publication as a PDF, in Dutch. The edition is also available on fd.nl.
Curious what this means for your home or project? Book an introduction, and we will look at it together.