Meet the Expert: Tom Hawkins

Meet our Head of Residential Development for Central London, @TomHawkins who shares his thoughts on the resurgence of the Central London property market and what he’s looking forward to in 2022.

What is it like to be back at Hamptons after a 5.5 year hiatus?

It’s really good to be back. There are a few familiar faces and quite a few new faces, but it feels like being welcomed back to a family. I feel like the company ethos is aligned to my personal outlook on life, making it even more exciting to join the team in what is a really inclusive and fun environment. I’m also excited to see what the next few years brings for Hamptons following the recent Connells takeover. I feel like there is a lot of opportunity to grow with the backing of such a well-established and experienced team.

Tell us a bit about your new role. What does a typical day look like?

I’ve joined the team to help expand our Residential Development offering in London. It’s a space that I’m really passionate about and I feel I have a wealth of experience to bring to the role having been in the industry for nearly 20 years now. My main focus is on New Homes developments in Central London and I feel I have a lot to offer both Hamptons and our clients.?

My days are really varied but I focus on getting out and connecting with my clients as well as our sales teams in order to generate business and take advantage of any opportunities that come our way. I’m thrilled to have appointed a new Sales Manager, Daniel Elliot, who has recently joined to help me run the department, build our team and expand our impressive offering.

What excites you about the Central London market in 2022?

Travel! With travel opening up again, particularly to Asia, but also to the Middle East and America, we’re going to see a huge impact on the Central London property market. Throughout the uncertainty of the pandemic many international buyers had to put their decisions on hold. Whilst we saw some fantastic transactions towards the end of last year when restrictions eased, I believe that with borders fully opening up again we will see even more demand from many overseas buyers.

If you had to give one practical piece of advice to a developer to assist your sales process, what would it be?

Product, product, product! And when you’ve got that right you should aim to make the buyers’ journey seamless. This can really be helped by ensuring that your marketing is fit for purpose as early as possible in the development lifecycle. The buyer profile in Central London is largely international buyers so we need to ensure that they are initially able to access and experience developments virtually, which can be very hard to do without the right tools.

This means that we need developers to provide us with engaging interactive platforms, virtual tours, strong imagery and CGIs, and detailed brochures and specs. It all sounds really simple but this really is the key to making the experience as immersive and straightforward as possible so potential buyers can get a well-rounded understanding of the property before committing to an in-person viewing.

Give us some insight into your property experience.

I’ve been working in the property industry for the past 18 years and my main focus has been on Residential Development in Central London. I started my career in Hamptons in Beaconsfield in 2005 selling established property, quickly moving into London to work in the New Homes team before leaving Hamptons and joining Knight Frank as a Partner in 2016. A year later I was promoted to Head of IPM for the Middle East, predominantly selling London and UK residential developments to the Middle East market. I lived in Dubai where the team was based and from there I travelled a huge amount throughout the region gaining exposure to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. I moved back to the Knight Frank head office in London in mid-2019, where I worked for circa two years before joining Hamptons as the Head of Residential Development for Central London in October 2021.

What has been your most memorable project to-date?

I’ve been involved in such incredible projects across the board but one of my most memorable experiences has been selling an entire building of 58 apartments in Hong Kong in one weekend. The demand was tremendous and we managed to sell out the full scheme over the course of two days.

If you joined us at happy hour, what would you order?

A delicious pint of Guinness

Lastly, finish this sentence. On Sunday mornings, you can usually find me...

Making the most of the outdoors, either on a long run or walking my dog Dumbles with my fiancée.

For more insight, get in touch with @Tomhawkins

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