In the following interview, “5 Minutes with…”, a series by London estate agent Bold and Reeves, Sebastian Moritz of Moricon Consultants shares his views on the industry and current and future projects. As the heat builds up, we take a break to listen to Sebastian Moritz and learn more about his journey within property development. Sebastian founded Moricon Consultants, a London-based consultancy that sets up bespoke hospitality, amenities and operations structures for the pre-opening and mobilisation phase of development projects. Can you tell us a bit more about your company? I started the company in 2017. I had just finished a project where I had discovered a niche in the market – to help developers find the red thread from conception through delivery. I took the plunge and started my own company to service this need. Can you tell us a bit about your services? I liaise with the construction team, suppliers and vendors to ensure cohesion of service delivery from start to end. Ideally, I review the architectural plans at the beginning to confirm whether a client is creating a structure supporting front- and back-of-house services. Unfortunately, developers often forget about the back-of-house structures and how to help the team when they take every space to commercialise. How do you suggest ways to improve the plans? I create a narrative based on the aspirations of the services. A fictitious family who lives at the property acts as a catalyst: I describe their life – such as when they travel by foot, by car, by taxi, when they have visitors when they go to the spa, etc. This helps create a whole vision of the service and highlights the usage of all the available spaces. We then disseminate this through the development and design process. Take biometric readers: everyone is keen on the latest tech, but someone who’s just bought an apartment for £15 million is unlikely to part with their thumbprint. Instead, they’re more likely to give someone a key and are used to fobs. This simple choice can save considerable costs. We also help with design advice from an operations view. You need to understand how a building is run to design it. For example, the front of the house might be operating CCTV monitors, a printer and a computer. It would help if you made sure all those things are planned for in the design of the concierge desk, such as including enough power points. It would help if you also made this front-of-house area comfortable. If it’s dimly lit or uncomfortable, staff will eventually leave, which will incur recruitment costs and disrupt the service that the clients in the building are paying for. When do you join a project? It’s often too late! I like to be there initially, where I can help save money. For example, one client had no private access to their boiler house. The only point of entry was through a busy retail space. I highlighted the problem, and they could change the design so that service members wouldn’t carry boiler equipment through the shops. What sets you apart in the world of prime property? I don’t think anyone out there does what I do. I am like the hub in a wheel that the spokes are connected to. My primary skill is a deep understanding of the impact of service delivery on the different disciplines and connecting the points, keeping the aspired customer experience at the forefront of the various stakeholders. How did you come across Bold & Reeves? Another company introduced me. I then met Henry, and we hit it off. It works well because if a developer selects Bold & Reeves, I can give them the keys to the castle and ensure everything is in perfect working condition. My role fits with their structure, management philosophy, operating guidelines and contract with the client. What do you have lined up in the future? I recently started a mystery shopping business because there is a gap. It focuses on how the potential tenant experiences the service of a building. We have just started with our first client, but it’s all part of the customer experience. All our services are with the client at heart. Do the uniforms of the staff look clean? Does the building smell okay? Are people smiling when you enter? People are paying a huge amount for these services, which need empathy-driven so you don’t lose the customer.
How to best manage your company’s Home Views Rating
How to best manage your company’s HomeViews Rating Like buying a car, buying or renting a home/apartment is one of the most expensive and far-reaching decisions you will make; until now, there was a massive imbalance when buyers went about their decision – the car industry honed over decades a myriad of ways to inform about models, makes, performance and other metrics and all of this is readily available via printed or online publications. Until now, deciding on a home has been very trying; you needed to visit the place, make inquiries, rely on agents’ feedback, etc., and were never as informed as you wanted. Since February 2019, this has received a massive boost from HomeViews – an online dating service, with feedback published – similar to hotels – by tenants, sharing their views concerning location, facilities, management, design and value. Those metrics are obvious to prospective tenants and buyers and give a fair amount of information from the community living at such properties. This is a game-changer, similar to the advent of Tripadvisor for the hospitality industry – since its introduction in February 2000, the site has published over 760 million reviews of restaurants, hotels and attractions and has 490million visitors that post 270 reviews per minute – wouldn’t you say this is powerful stuff? If the Home Views reviews are positive and your organisation has met the expectations and delivered a positive experience, all is well – but what happens if that is not the case? Negative reviews are seen by thousands of potential customers influenced by reviews and how they are reacted to. You, as a landlord, should answer any reviews to mitigate further publicity issues; this requires a new way of thinking: your response is on one side, addressing the problems at hand but is also communicating your brand values and ethos (i.e. how you deal with “stuff”) to a broader audience. Responding to HomeViews comments pays: Research released mid-December 2019 from Ipsos Mori in partnership with TripAdvisor has revealed that customers are more likely to book after seeing owners react to online reviews. A poll of 23,000 travellers and diners worldwide showed that 63% of respondents said they would be more likely to book a hotel or restaurant if the owner responded to most reviews. When a property owner leaves personalised responses to reviews, over three-quarters (77%) of TripAdvisor travellers said they are more likely to book. Even among respondents who stated they tend to focus less on online reviews, over half were still able to book if the owner responded to reviews. Over two-thirds (67%) of respondents agreed that they find it helpful when they can see the context of negative reviews and apologies to guests from management. In this new residential model, the primary source of revenue is the individual resident or customer generated through rent and services. This places BTR firmly in the consumer market culture, where keeping the customer happy and loyal is critical to securing ongoing revenue. In good BTR schemes, the customer is central to design, operational and income generation dynamics. MORICON Consultants Ltd. can help landlords not only to finetune their operation, but also to optimise their tenant’s score via HomeViews and create a more positive brand image: • Root-cause analysis of issues through a detailed review of tenant comments. • Detailed audit of standards or creation of new standards – based on extensive hospitality knowledge to streamline front and back-of-house operations. • Review of existing customer complaints processes. • Interviews with tenants to analyse existing complaints. • Training workshops for your concierge team. • Guidance in response writing based on your communication brand standards. • Creation of benchmark operations standards to underpin your business
When should the state expropriate? New approach in Berlin?
Recently an article was posted on German News site Tagesschau regarding the housing crisis in Berlin. The findings resonated with me and I thought it would be interesting to share the key elements of it. All around the world housing is in high demand and a lot of municipalities and communities declared a housing crisis. To define the crisis, Shelter 2016 lists several criteria: home ownership is slipping out of reach (gap between income and house price), hugely expensive housing costs (higher mortgages stretch home finances), more families rent privately (unstable market, lack of standard) and sadly a rise in homelessness. Whilst each consecutive government is pledging more housing stock the reality is bleak – following graphic highlights the ever growing gap in UK: The number of new households each year has exceeded the number of homes built in every year since 2008, and the gap has grown in recent years, new dwellings (bars) by tenure, and new households (line), 1972-2013 (projections of new households to 2020). To counter the effects of the shortage of housing stock drastic measures will have to be used to avert a national crisis – could expropriation be one way out? Expropriation of your property for new train lines being built or a new traffic scheme being planned happens frequently (see HS2 project in UK). To socialise complete private housing companies to remedy the housing crisis is political and legal new terrain – but just this is the aim of a citizen’s initiative in Berlin. The German basic law (GG)1 differentiates between socialisation and expropriation. Article 15 GG defines socialisation as follows: Land, natural resources and means of production may for the purpose of socialisation be transferred to public ownership or other forms of public enterprise by a law that determines the nature and extent of compensation. With respect to such compensation the third and fourth sentences of paragraph (3) of Article 14 shall apply mutatis mutandis2 Simply put – this defines the authorisation for socialisation based on economic policy considerations, notably of entire industry segments. This measure was never made use of in Germany in this form to date, therefore no judgment or precedent can be found in the legal system. Article 14 GG, § 3 defines the “classic expropriation” 3 when the state can legally interfere with the basic right of property. Here the overlaying principle is that the expropriation needs to serve the common good and must be proportional. The legislator has dealt with this frequently, contrary to Article 15 GG there are numerous and clear judgements to the legality and prerequisites and boundaries of expropriation. Of course this relates to all questions of adequate compensation as well. Socialisation by legal act? It is clear that socialisation can only be invoked via parliamentary act – in case of the Berlin citizen’s initiative only the Berlin State Parliament can ratify such an act – the executive branch cannot carry out socialisation on its own. A petition – as initiated currently in Berlin – can only be the political impetus but never the legal basis for socialisation. Article 15 GG envisions compensation, but how much must be balanced between the public and the involved parties. There is disagreement between lawyers regarding the level of compensation: some demand market-value based compensation whilst others peg the sum below current market level. In the end the basic law will decide whether socialisation will be enshrined in law– given that the topic is highly contentious and unknown legal territory this will most likely be a case for Supreme Court ruling in years to come. In UK this form of ownership was mostly practised on national level (rail, mail, utilities etc.) but never with private companies as such. It will be interesting if this initiative from Berlin will find followers here in an attempt to resolve the housing crisis. 1 GG Grund Gesetz (the equivalent of a constitution) 2 Mutatis mutandis is a Medieval Latin phrase meaning “the necessary changes having been made” or “once the necessary changes have been made”. It remains unnaturalized in English and is therefore usually italicized in writing 3 Expropriation shall only be permissible for the public good. It may only be ordered by or pursuant to a law that determines the nature and extent of compensation. Such compensation shall be determined by establishing an equitable balance between the public interest and the interests of those affected. In case of dispute concerning the amount of compensation, recourse may be had to the ordinary courts.
