The flagship office of Fine & Country and The Guild of Property Professionals in Park Lane, London, is to close on Monday while it undergoes a six-figure makeover.
It is expected to reopen in late August.
There will be no change in services as staff are temporarily relocating to another office in London.
The Guild and Fine & Country will share regular photos and updates of the work in progress with customers.
They will also update marketing materials with pictures of the new office for agents to share with customers once the work is complete and professional pictures are taken.
The design and renovation is being overseen by Base Interior, part of the Fine & Country interior design network.
Comments (7)
Simon Bradbury is obviously a keen supporter but I thank him for his respect. But he has mis-interpreted several of my comments.
1. The story was about the office refurbishment – he is entitled to think it is newsworthy, I disagree. It no doubt followed a press release, issued as part of maintaining a profile that is germane to both the Guild and F & C’s existence.
2. Foot traffic may be comparable to other regional and local offices, but the portals allow buyers to search for properties in areas where they want to live, and to ask the staff in those regional offices about those areas of interest, about schools, transport links, amenities etc. How can London based staff do other than refer them to the company/branch whose properties are displayed on their touchscreens* ?
*To me the jury is still out about touchscreens. I am drawn to them like a moth to a flame (it’s the geek in me) but surely the role of agents is to talk to potential clients, so if I had one (unlikely) I’d switch it off during office hours.
3. The “white sock” agent refers to those regional firms that wish to embrace the mid and upper market but have neither the staff nor the experience to do so, and for which the F & C brand gives them support. I did not refer to the Park Lane office as being their natural habitat, but we know where they are and many in agency rather guffawed at the calibre of agents signing up to its offering. Such agents may have felt uncomfortable competing with the likes of Knight Frank, S & P etc. They may also have felt ill-equipped to write flowing prose about the property they have been asked to market as readily as such agents, hence my comment about intelligible English. No slur was intended or implied against those for whom English is not their first language.
I may also have to accept that my comments related to those who originally subscribed, whom you now call “well respected”. Time has moved on, but my attitude remains that both the Guild and F & C enables some agents to punch above their weight, but that the Park Lane Office is an expensive irrelevance.
Whilst I can appreciate the general cynicism of some estate agents in respect of the Guild and Fine & Country’s Park Lane office, I really do feel that it is misplaced. It is of course a subjective call as to whether a refurbishment of this type is newsworthy – I personally think it is.
In respect of the remarks from “scruffy”, again I would respectfully disagree. My experience is almost the complete opposite. The foot traffic, whilst not necessarily substantial at the Park Lane office compared to some, seems comparable to most other regional and local offices nowadays. Having visited the office numerous times in the last 12 months, I would estimate the weekly visitors to the office, “window shoppers” and those interacting with the touch screens to be measured in the hundreds if not thousands. These potential buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants are all being exposed to the Fine & Country and Guild brands in a way that they might not normally be and this can only be a positive experience for all concerned.
The remarks regarding ” white-socked agents” at the office are simply inaccurate. In the many years that I have had the privilege to visit this particular office – not a single white sock has ever been visible! The ( mostly relatively younger) men and women working there are dedicated professionals who ( at least with my experience ) have always served my colleagues and I extremely well. They frequently work out of their standard contracted hours and do an enormous amount of work for charity in this country and indeed around the world. Apart from speaking extremely good English, a number of them also speak a number of other languages – a resource that has been extremely useful to us on a number of occasions.
Your final observations in respect of the “naive and gullible” are also, in my opinion, misplaced. You only need to take a look at the long list of well respected estate agents associated with the Guild and Fine & Country to realise that this comment is somewhat disingenuous.
I never really understood the role of this office for the Guild other than as a prestigious London address that smaller regional firms might claim to also “operate” from to raise their profile. When I visited, this role seemed a little muddled and despite the address, it hardly gets much foot traffic. The London office, Mayfair Office, Carter Jonas London Link are/were further examples of this, often supported by glossy magazines to further boost their subscribers’ regional profile. The benefit seems marginal and only likely to capture blinkered buyers, who now form part of a tiny percentage, that believe that footslogging around the streets of West London is the best way to find their dream cottage in Devon, rather than a quick browse online.
The Park Lane office also hosts the London head office of Fine & Country, where white-sock agents with aspirations for the middle and upper market can be trained to act posh, learn how to create a glossy brochure with intelligible English and con potential clients with so-called London representation. While old style Joint Agency (usually a tie-up between a regional and “London” agent to tap both markets) may have died due to the internet and the fear of over exposure by more than one agent on the portals, surely as an office this is now only relevant to the naïve and/or gullible ?
White-sock agents? I haven’t heard that term before?
Hello Mr & Mrs Vendor. Just thought I’d send you some photos of our six-figure office makeover. Yes, that’s where all that commission you are paying us is being spanked. Lovely, isn’t it?
“Pictures of the new office for agents to share with customers”
Really? Get over yourselves! What seller is remotely interested in a refurbishment of an office?
Oh hello Mrs Smith, I know we have not talked in a few weeks, just wanted to ask you to check your emails. I have sent you some pictures of one of our offices having a lick of paint and a new carpet.
Is an office being refurbished news?