A brief message from our founding Directors - Ray Withers
(left) and David Cox (right).
"May you live in interesting times”
So goes the old Chinese curse. Well, we are certainly living in
interesting times but they don’t seem to be as much of a curse as
people had once feared. For our clients the last two years have
affected them in myriad ways and we have had to remain fleet of
foot to stay on top of the risks and opportunities that have been
created, but the majority of our clients have found the last two
years positive from an investment perspective. Excitingly, recent
customer surveys have also confirmed that many of clients are
looking forward to taking advantage of the numerous investment
opportunities that have been created.
As for Property Frontiers, we are fortunate to
have a loyal investor base who continued to invest in quality
opportunities throughout the darkest period of the credit crunch.
We have had to adapt and change both our business and investment
strategy, but we have had a good crisis all in all. We have always
believed that great companies are forged in hard times and it seems
that the Great Recession may have been our personal furnace.
For the real estate industry, the recession
has been very healthy. For too long, companies with improper
ethics, low service standards and bad ideas survived; buoyed by the
rising tide of the boom. As the tide has ebbed, many real estate
companies have been washed away leaving fewer, but better quality
companies. As a result we have fewer, but stronger competitors.
This is good for the property investing population and, we hope,
good for our industry as a new competitive paradigm pushes
standards higher.
So our new challenge is to move Property
Frontiers and our clients forward into the new world of
opportunities that exist; this is a challenge that we relish. Since
our founding in 2004 we have made sure progress towards our aim of
becoming the leading name in the property investment market. The
fact that we have sold 2000 properties during that period is
testament to this, as is the fact that our clients include
sophisticated investors and institutions and that over 60% of our
business comes from repeat purchase and client referral. These
strong client relationships have been built through the effort of
our exceptional team whose collective knowledge and experience far
surpasses any other company in the industry. This is a strength we
will continue to build.
Our aim now is to continue building our
presence, our knowledge and the range of investment opportunities
that we offer our clients. This will certainly involve
change, but the crisis has also solidified the certainties of our
original premise for our company; that investors want
well-qualified investments that were not otherwise easily
accessible in the open market, and a service provider which behaves
like a regulated (responsible) company in an unregulated market.
This was true in the boom years and even truer now, so despite all
the changes we have seen over the last two years, these principles
remain. To this end we continue to focus much of our business
resource on investment sourcing, analysis and due diligence. Over
98% of the developments presented to us are rejected on the basis
of insufficient investment potential or due diligence checks.
Although this approach has caused us to lose out commercially on
some occasions, we take pride in the fact that being diligent has
helped create the client relationships we currently enjoy and is
directly responsible for our current strength.
Our desire to innovate also remains. From 2004
to 2007 we pioneered many new markets and were indeed one of the
first companies to bring investors quality opportunities in places
such as China, Brazil and Mongolia. As investors have refocused on
value in developed markets we have continued to innovate with new
investment structures and methods of investing in properties
previously only available to institutional clients. On a wall in
our office are Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words. “Do not go where
the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a
trail” We will continue to follow this advice to the benefit
of our clients.
Finally, to all of our existing clients; thank
you and we hope your experience of working with Property Frontiers
has been enjoyable and rewarding. For those of you who have not
previously invested with us, please take the time to speak to once
of our consultants, register for our news letters or investment
reports or even request a copy of our book “Where
to Buy Property Abroad – An Investor’s Guide” (available
through Amazon) ask one of our Consultants for a free copy). Feel
free to ask our advice on any real estate enquiry; our team will be
happy to help. Don’t expect “hard sell” as this isn’t what we are
about; we are an investment adviser. A substantial number of our
existing clients deal with us for as much as a year before making
their first investment. The reason for this is that we encourage
our clients to make the right investment for their personal needs;
knowing what this is and finding the opportunity can take time.
Thank you for taking the time to read this
message and showing an interest in our company. If you have any
comments or want to get in touch with either of us please do get in
touch.
Best wishes,
Ray Withers and David Cox
Co-Founding Directors
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