S13 E10: Daniel Daggers, Founder and CEO of DDRE Global and Star of Netflix's 'Buying London'

[Music] You're listening to the luxury item, the podcast on the business of luxury and the people and companies that are shaping the future of the luxury industry. Here's your host, Scott Kerr. My guest on the luxury item is Daniel Daggers, founder and CEO of Luxury Real Estate Company, DDRI Global, and star of Netflix's property show, Buying London, which followed some of London's most successful property agents. Daggers has worked in real estate for nearly 30 years. His sales volume exceeds $5 billion or around 4 billion pounds. He has advised royal families, successful entrepreneurs, and high profile individuals from the world of sports and entertainment to finance leaders. In 2019, Daggers sold one of London's most expensive homes for a reported 95 million pounds. On Instagram, he's known as Mr. Superprime, and London Superprime refers to properties valued at 10 million pounds and above. Daggers is one of the first British agents to adopt social media as a sales and branding tool. While the majority of DDRI's transactions are UK-based, the company sells luxury properties in the world's most desirable locations from Dubai to Hong Kong. Welcome to the luxury item, Daniel. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited that you could join me. So, you know, I first learned about you and your firm during a 2022 episode of the Netflix reality show, The Parisian Agency that follows the Cretz family and their luxury real estate agency Cretz and partners as they help clients buy and sell homes in France and abroad. And you appeared on the show as a guest where you visited one of the Cretz's listings, this 32,000 square foot castle in France, as the family worked to impress you in order to form a partnership on Superprime properties. Your firm was already two years in. What opportunities did that appearance on the Parisian Agency open up for you? Okay, great question. Let me just start by, I'm a Londoner. And in the UK, we're pretty passive about business. You know, we've got a hierarchical view of how we earn our presence in markets. And over the years, I've sort of flirted with the concept of more awareness. And doing this, doing the Parisian show with the Cretz family who are lovely by the way, they are the people that you see on TV. Was a sort of litmus test on what does awareness on Netflix create for you, if anything. And so my little segment there enabled me to recognize that awareness is a good thing. It was amazing how many people we sort of see the show that are either one or two people away from me. The degrees of separation of tiny as well gets smaller. And there was business opportunities, fundamentally, and that was the purpose for it. So we've engaged in pieces of business since that show. And then obviously it gave me a little bit more confidence to commit to doing our own one. And you spent 12 years at Leading Agency night Frank and parted ways with the firm before founding DDR Global in 2020. And in the four years since DDR has sold, I'm reading 600 million pounds of real estate, most of it in the UK. So when you launch your own firm, do you have a model in mind of how you were going to sell luxury real estate and deliver value? Yeah, thank you. Here in my time when I produced my bounce around the world and went to and sort of understood different markets. I went for as far as Australia and then through Europe and the US. And when I saw the impact of social media having the independence of individuals and their ability to essentially market themselves and really stay over social channels. And the negative impact of GDPR and finding it really difficult to reach a customer, I knew that the only way or my feeling was the only way that we were going to grow a business rapidly and do so the customers interest by heart was by putting our people ahead of the corporate brand. So we essentially replicated what they do in the US and made our Europe and Australia where the individual brokerage, sorry, sits in a brokerage and they're the service provider. And that's what we did and then we utilize some some learnings of working in in a state agency in the UK where the corporate brand leads and they just have a different structure to the business that can support individuals. And so we sort of amalgamated the two and and and now have essentially what we would call an advisory business that looks like a brokerage. And buying London dropped on Netflix this past May in 2024 similar to the shows that have come before it like selling sunset and buying Beverly Hills and buying London features a blend of showcasing aggressively luxurious homes and inter office drama. The main players are you Mr. Super Prime as you go by on Instagram and your team of real estate agents at D. D. R. E. Global. I know the show hasn't been picked up for Netflix for a second season, but what have you learned from your experience in the global spotlight that will help you grow in a post Netflix world? What did you learn about branding and and business and how did that change your perception of things? Well, there's a lot of them pick there. The Netflix thing is is fascinating, fundamentally more awareness more business. And Netflix is one of the greatest media channels for you to deliver a message to the world. And I think that we have been particularly in the UK focused on this very sterile poised vision of what service providers look like when the truth is you can't hide behind the suit anymore. And in fact, the suit in my eyes doesn't necessarily reflect a vision of trust anymore. And without showing in forms of personality, you cannot engage your people. There's too much noise and people want to do business that with people that are similar to them or that they like. And so there was a lot of drama on the show. I wouldn't say that that is a fair reflection of our business. But I think if I put a camera in your house, Scott, for the next 18 months. And then I snipped it down to 20 minute episodes. I think that we're probably going to think that you're not just a poised charming human being, but there are times when you can lose your shit, etc. Right. So, so you know, you get a snippet. It's like a peek through the blinds. When we're talking about luxury brands and how you build a luxury brand, the focal point for me was having individuals representing the brand going into very expensive homes that looked incredible. And that sets an example as to who we are, what we do and what we do for a profession. And that very in a simplified way, having our people going into very expensive homes and selling them is a great, I don't put this staple as to what we do and what level of the market we work in. I do think that our industry is going through a turbulent time because we're having to recognize that the corporate brand sits behind personal brand as opposed to personal brand sitting behind corporate brand. And what does that really look like now in our world? And that's something that we're tackling, you know, every day. Yeah. And I'm buying London viewers got a little bit of an education about the luxury real estate industry itself in London and globally. And London is the most mature and most expensive high and residential market in Europe, but the luxury property market has been experiencing a bit of a slump. I was reading it might have been its worst year since 2020 this past year. What's been dampening the sentiment among wealthy and discretionary buyers? I think discretionary buyers want to invest in markets that are either very stable or on the way up. And nowadays when you have hyper mobile wealth, you want to entice these people by offering them very, very positive tax environments and good stability, good levels of stability, political stability. These are sort of anchor reasons why people would invest in certain markets. And we have been challenging the UK has been really challenging the alternate worse and saying, hey, if you want to, if you want to invest in our country, you have to spend a lot of money to do that. And the instability doesn't help. So fundamentally we have been suffering, but then again, I think there's a point where that turns and the wise investor will sort of refocus on the UK. And I suspect that that will be happening soon is you know, soon is. What does that mean? The way you have to look at it is that global investors are bench marking different markets. And you've seen the Dubai market go up 200%. 300%. You see the market in Miami just rapidly increase. You've seen these very tax efficient markets grow so fast because the capital is coming from all over the world. And at a certain point, you see the sea saw a value change because if you're telling me that to buy two bedroom apartment in Dubai and the best development is going to cost you three and a half thousand dollars of foot. And I can buy you a two to three bedroom apartment in May fair at three thousand dollars of foot. So if you invest as a reconsidering what they feel is a good investment. Right. Because values don't continue to grow. There are reasons for them. And the decline as well. Yeah, what parts of London have been hit the hardest and what districts and neighborhoods are actually showing some promise. Yeah, so discretionary market. So the person who said, oh, let's buy a place in London, and it's just a base so we can use it for two months of the year. And then you can use it. That market is very fragile because there is an necessity to buy. family markets and that is dictated partially by schools and by architecture because what we do know is that the ultra-high net worth they don't want to live on multiple floors they want to live as actually as possible so the architecture of certain neighbourhoods really dictate that that value proposition and so neighbourhoods like Holland Park and Kensington St. John's Wood hamps the high gate and then Barnes just south of the river enrichment where you get these sort of relatively palatial homes that a double front attached carriage driveways big gardens and you have that sort of ecosystem of living at home which which really coven pushed is where value sits right now or where people want to be right now because they're going to make a commitment for the next 10 to 15 years Yeah, dictated by kids So how are you navigating these markets? We're not we're not playing a short-term game game here The way we navigate markets is we give people great advice we do so by having insane The value proposition that we have is that we're every decision we make is benchmarked against against data Total market data and at the top end of the market giving your clients more insight and doing in a personal way Create so much more compounding value than just saying hey, this is what it's worth And so we want to give our clients more insight and we want them to be partners in the process So we give them access to everything all the digital Analytics and data that drives any decision-making we want to give to our clients. Yeah, essentially just build brand So have you seen major price cuts on properties that you've been representing? Someone was selling their property for 26 million pounds In London or trying to and now we've been appointed to sell it at 18 million pounds That's not because it's it's just gone down 8 million pounds of value It's because it was misvalued in the first instance You know, but they're you're seeing corrections and now the dollars just just climb 10% against the pound The savvy investor is now really considering what they want to do now is essentially a nice window of opportunity So you have to get this podcast out really quickly, okay? So what what was so what were some of your firms most notable deals last year? We just sold a plot of land for circa 26 million which equates to a 60 million pound transaction There are a couple of others, but we're on the NDA so we're sorry Yeah, so in terms of who's doing the buying has it been the wealthy expats snapping up London's high-end properties thanks to favorable extent rates Yes, so a well-to-intering one I've worked at the top in the market for a long time What we tend to find is that you'll have some people that are buying for family reasons and you have some people buying for investment for long-term investment But you have a group of people that are coming from there Their own countries and their concern over this stability of their own country far outweighs the downside of any risk of buying in London Right, so you might be buying into a market that isn't performing particularly well But you're much more concerned about about how you're going to be treated in your own country and how your wealth is going to be treated in your own country So there are different drivers of people to make decisions and certainly that's one of them political instability around the world or natural disasters do actually force Sort of wealth distribution to other markets and that's something that we see as well a lot I was reading that Americans are the number one buyers of ultra prime real estate in London that you know for my listeners That's 10 million pounds plus it used to be the Russians and the Saudis, but that's changed Yeah, the Americans are definitely up there. I'm not sure they're number one to be honest So they've still got a way to go and that might be enticing them to get their games together But they're definitely up there I would say Chinese are making significant significant in rows to the top end of the market and and Middle East and client base but I like dealing with the American client base So from your experience where's their wealth coming from the Americans? Yeah, well, I posted on my Instagram account about five years ago We're seeing a tectonic shift in wealth Which I thought was quite good headline And it's without a shadow of a doubt that the lot of the wealth is coming over here is is is is tech Tech generated or hedge fund managers The technology piece I think is fascinating because the way they've created their wealth over the past decade is is at their desk by their computer and They've just been hammering it for a decade or a decade and a half And they've been holidaying in the most efficient manner possible in the US like they'll be going to Miami for a beach holiday And they'll be going to New York for a for a city city break But they'll be going to Aspen for skiing they would try and commit their holidays in the most efficient manner And then they get phomo and they start realizing it actually we're in a globalized world now and They see what's going on on social media. They see what portofino looks like or what London looks like in the summer and all these different neighborhoods And now you're seeing these people wanting to sort of spread their wings get their family more acclimatized to sort of global cultures and That is a significant push and London is the first sort of when we talk about skip and jump London's the first skip and then the jump is to other other parts of the world, but London's the base So you finding these buyers are looking for a great deal and you know like a business like return on their investment Or do they really want to own something in an affluent neighborhood and feel comfortable saying that they live there? It's both sometimes there's a little bit of flexing I get I haven't a mate feeling that the people are less romantic about their real estate nowadays You do don't get me wrong. You do You do see people fall in love with a home and want to be there for the next 10 15 20 years and I think that's fabulous or build a home But I suspect that the majority of people we're doing business with are also savvy and Unless emotional about their purchases I want to talk about the great wealth transfer So according to a recent report a projected 18.3 trillion dollars in wealth will be transferred globally by 2030 The great wealth transfer is expected to be the largest intergenerational transfer of assets in history This shift will make millennials and to a lesser extent gen Z the wealthiest generation in history the potentially great wealth Handover will likely have reverberations in the job market economy and real estate of the recipients of this largest Are you and your brokers already seeing the effects of this movement of assets to younger generations? Yes, we've seen it for a while if you look at the average age of buyers now In the super prime segment of the market they're in their 40s and then you start looking at other people that we do business with they're in their early 20s I don't think it's just a wealth transfer. I think it's the opportunity of creating wealth When it's online you don't have any forms of real nepotism When young people build a business they could be 1920 21 22 23 18 even and if the product fits and they can they can create a huge amount of wealth because they're selling to the globe We definitely see younger people in the markets and those younger people want to deal with people that understand So how the corporate brand sits in that space is interesting? I eat a language that you use But I think that we'll find that things are just going to get so much more personal People going to buy from people that they know like and trust and therefore this new generation They they really deal with strangers Maybe we deal with people that they've either grown up with or have an affiliation to and that might be over social media channels London has maintained its appeal for wealthy investors with the financial and tech sectors driving a significant portion of the demand for luxury homes Which we just talked about now in a different sector luxury retail has entered into an escalation phase There has been a significant acceleration of investments in the last two years by major luxury groups transforming their main luxury streets of London, Paris, Milan and New York into retail enclaves There has been a lineup of new stores on Bond Street from luxury mega brands like Balenciaga and Gucci Tom Ford purchased a mansion in London's Chelsea district last year for about 80 million pounds or $104 million Make it one of the most expensive home deals in the UK. Are you seeing wealthy buyers who work in luxury fashion also propping up the luxury home market in London? Not as much not as much you've got a few unicorns Tom Ford is certainly a unicorn. Yeah, we're not seeing really fashionistas buying super prime assets that regularly. Okay. It's more the tech tech focus buyers and the fashionistas they tend to create more cultural reasons to move to places, but they don't set the benchmark. So if you look at for instance, how London shaping it's moved a bit like New York or Manhattan has where all the interest in Manhattan was up at East side up West side and then so how it became so phenomenally successful because you had all the artisians and designers, fashion houses, focusing in that space and the creators and then well followed. And you have the same sort of thing with London. That's happened and you've seen markets like like Marlibone, Grow and Westball, Grow and Notting Hill. And that's partly driven by the creatives and fashionistas who moved their first and then well follows. Your firm also has a content creation arm to boost your agents profiles and getting properties seen by the right buyers. You are one of the first. British agents to adopt social media as a sales and branding tool, a technique that's been common in the US for a while. How has social media changed the way you do business? Things are much more personal than they ever have been and therefore more bespoke. And what I mean by that is that the product itself, the good British state agents around the world realized that when they were showing British state, they had to tell the story that was more relatable to the individual seeing the property. And nowadays you do the same thing but a bit digital channels. And it is the individual that delivers that message to their audience who is already in affiliation of them. They're already brand of light. So that is the space where you want to emphasize the personal brand because they're already speaking to a customer base that wants to deal with them, likes them, respect them. Obviously there's a couple of haters in there because that's just how it works. But really everything's become much more bespoke. And the last thing you want in today's world is to be a stranger. So you want to make sure, particularly in a luxury segment in the market, if you're a stranger you're distrusted. So we want our people to be recognised, known, understood, liked for all their nuances, they like cars, their inter-fashion, they play with their kids on Saturdays and all this sort of stuff. It becomes hyper important because people just don't trust the man in the suit as much anymore. And so there's much more personality and that's what we're seeing and we just want to enhance that. So our people are more relevant and not strangers in the market. So does that impact the way you go about hiring agents that you bring on board? Yes, the numbers are important, but how important is it for them to have a strong personal brand and large social media following from the get go? I think it's important for us to recognise that there's value in it. There's value in it, fundamentally there was value in someone who has the ability to create content and is committed to it because then meeting more people and therefore will create more opportunities. There are some people that want to stay off social media and I totally appreciate that, but those people tend to have their own private networks, maybe already particularly wealthy or come from wealthy backgrounds. Social media creates more opportunity and therefore you have to strike a balance but fundamentally they need to be culturally right for our business and that's why we have a three stage process of bringing people into the business. It's very, very important. These people are the face of our business essentially. What are the three stages? Well, we get interviewed, they get interviewed by three different people and we do character assessments and we analyse our social media channels. We look at their track record. It's quite in depth. What do you see is the biggest difference in the way brokers and real estate agents attack business in the UK versus the US? UK is still suffering from this attitude whereby it's been driven by nepotism and not by merit. In the US, the wonderful thing about this country is that you do have this sort of American dream where people really go and attack their worlds and they try to be the best version of themselves. But fundamentally, the most important thing is that I believe the real estate brokers and agents in the UK have relaxed their levels of pride because they were prepared to sit behind the corporate brand. In the US, it's opposite. You are ahead of the corporate brand. You are the brand and therefore you need to have a lot of pride in your business and they're the two culturally largest differences between the groups of individuals because there's talent everywhere. It's just how they approach work. Do you think the US model could ever work in the UK? Well, it's working because we're now the fourth-maced infrastructure real estate business across the UK at marketing and selling homes over five million pounds. We did that four and a half years prior to Netflix, sorry, four years, prior to Netflix and without any paid media spent. So looking at the trends, what are wealthy buyers looking for in a luxury home beyond merely acquiring the property in terms of design and decor, amenities, sustainability, elements, etc? I'm not sure they're committed to the sustainability part just yet. They're committed to their, we've been too fascinated around this concept of lifestyle. I think they're more focused now on lifestyle. How are they going to live? What does the space look like? All of the volumes? Which way do we face? What does the sunlight? These are the features that you can't necessarily change and they are much more conscious around them. So there's that. The other thing is that we're going to probably step into a world now where health and well-being gets incorporated into real estate using technology and just using space differently. I think we're going to start seeing a lot more of that in commitment to that. How about safety? Everyone wants to be full-step. I don't know. I thought there was an increase in there is a lot to be said about the UK and its current position on safety. There's a lot on social media about people's phones being stolen and stuff like that. But I think there's an element of balance that we need to have when we talk about stuff like this. Obviously you shouldn't be at risk when you're on the streets of your city. But then I come to the US and I speak to some of my lights here and then nervous to send their kids to school sometimes because people carry guns here. There is an element of balance that's required when making these considerations. But we should all feel safe. That's down to our governments and local municipalities. It's the start of a new year. Europe remains a magnet for affluent investors. What are you forecasting for the luxury residential market in 2025? I think that we need to see some political stability. If we see some more political stability we'll see more wealth transfer, not just through families, but across the world. I think we're going to see a lot more people investing in other cities. There's travel increases. I think more Americans are traveling now than ever before. That's inevitable. I think we'll find that everyone becomes a global investor. That means that you're going to have secondary markets that are going to start testing the first stage markets like London and New York. We're going to see more growth that way. That's a fascinating. If you can stay ahead of times when it comes to culture and see where people are in ties to go. If they feel committed to buying real estate, you need to essentially follow the money and follow the culture. Daniel, my final question is the luxury item question which I ask all my guests. If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could only have one single luxury item with you, what would that luxury item be? It can't be any form of air or water transportation to get you off that island or anything that requires mobile service. You can call somebody to pick you up off that island. It's just you on this lonely island. Lots of sand, palm trees, hermit crabs here and there. Lots of ocean. What would that one single luxury item you would like to have with you? Okay. I'm a very simple man. I'm a super dude but I might work in the luxury sphere and and it might be really fancy and everything but I'm a fundamentally really simple man. So the item that I would really want is a football and it would give me hours of entertainment every day and I would love that. Well, let's just hope that football does not accidentally kick into the ocean. Yeah, yeah. Fast on a bulky pine or something. Daniel Dagger's owner of Real Estate Company, DDRI Global and Star of Netflix's Buying London. Thank you so much for joining on the luxury item. Hey, thanks for having me. Appreciate it. That's it for this episode of the luxury item podcast. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this useful and entertaining, I would be really grateful if you can share it with a friend or colleague. I would love it if you subscribe so you never miss an episode and while you're there, be sure to rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It really helps other listeners find us. The luxury item podcast is a production of Silver Tone Consulting. I'm your host, Scott Kerr. Until next time. (upbeat music)