Lift-off for Space agency

THEY SAY that if you can set up a business in a slump and make it work then you are on to a winner. Rowena Quinn, of the new sales and lettings agency Space, in Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin, will hope to do just that, by tailoring her business to fit the current climate.

The director of the new company, which opened on February 1st, has previously worked for Savills and Daphne Kaye.

“In the height of the boom there was an obsession with property,” says Quinn, who now wants “to sell someone a home as opposed to a property and move away from the ethos of properties as investments”.

The first property Space showed was a house in Foxrock which pulled in 42 parties in the first hour of an open viewing last Saturday. “The key thing is that there is demand. It shows that there is a shortage of well priced stock in good areas,” says Quinn who says she is close to selling the house.

“The majority of people who came to view are living in rental accommodation and are looking to buy a family home. They are tired of renting.”

Such people sold their homes a year or so ago and have “realised that there is an element of good value now and they can afford what they couldn’t in the past”.

Many people who were made redundant from their estate agent jobs have set up lettings agencies, but Quinn says that she has not come across many who have established sales agencies.

Meanwhile country homes specialist Jack Hazell, who worked for Colliers Jackson-Stops for several years, has turned his attention to smaller homes in south Dublin where he has set up a lettings agency on Lower Kimmage Road. He has already picked up a significant amount of business in Dublin 6, 6W, 8 and 12, and is also managing a number of small apartment blocks.

Lettings is certainly one of the few busy areas in an otherwise bleak landscape. Savills has just reopened its residential letting service, which it closed some years ago, as its sales centres took off. The business of lettings was once considered high maintenance because of the number of staff needed. Now it’s a bit of a lifeline.