Editor’s Letter
February 2022WOTC Magazine’s January/February issue brings to the forefront the dynamic female leaders in Real Estate
Words Phadria PrendergastWe have spent the best part of the last 2 years doing everything from our homes — birthdays; shopping; working, and so, it seemed fitting that our first issue of the year would be about real estate.
At the height of the pandemic, I found myself moving homes and joining the royal, albeit glamorous streets of Chelsea, with its Georgian townhouses and iconic West End district. It made a differing change from the riverside view of the Thames that I had become accustomed to from my Canary Wharf apartment.
However, whilst putting the issue together, I just couldn’t envision only discussing residential real estate; a market that had seen a substantial increase in housing prices particularly in the UK, Luxembourg and Sweden, a country ranked the least affordable nation to purchase a house in 2021. We also had to address the commercial real estate market, which accounted for 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars in the UK alone.
Whilst retail and office commercial real estate markets took a hit, the pandemic had a positive effect on industrial real estate. For retail which we mostly anchor on within the issue, the pandemic meant suspending operations, stricter rules and facing a decline in footfall and revenues. Nevertheless, we saw Glossier open its first European flagship in December on King Street, Covent Garden — an area set to house several new fashion, fitness and jewellery brands in 2022, amongst which include Peloton, who much like Glossier had plans to axe a large chunk of its staff this year.
In 2021 we also welcomed new additions to Mayfair; Browns on Brook Street and Dr Barbara Sturm’s debut London spa on Mount Street, and of course we also saw the sale of luxury retail destination Selfridges, and Central and Signa’s exciting new plans to reopen its former hotel, which has been dormant since 2008.
In the middle of it all, one thing was clear; whether it was industrial space, a distribution centre, warehouse, office, or a store, all businesses need real estate to operate — even if your ‘office’ happened to be your home for the first few years of trading.
The Women in Real issue looks to begin a conversation surrounding the women in commercial and residential real estate from interior right through to retail and the women owning the brick and mortar and digital spaces.
When Selling Sunset first hit our screens in 2019, letting us into the lives of young, beautiful Hollywood realtors and their luxury lifestyles, we were sold, but it was evidently still missing something. So when Selling Tampa, its sister production launched on Netflix 2 years later, and brought with it, a black-owned, all-female real estate brokerage, it’s no wonder it raked in 243 million viewers within minutes, as women and young girls were inspired and finally able to see a woman that looked just like them, also epitomising luxury and opulence.
So with that, it was important for me; a black girl, who was born in Jamaica and grew up in the streets of East London, to spearhead this much-needed conversation in real estate as we introduce our January/February cover girls. The first; Russian-born, Polina Schepetkova who heads the Russian department at Sotheby’s Realty International and stars in Channel 4’s Britain’s Most Expensive Houses. With an extraordinary story of belief, always going for what you want and never taking no for answer, Schepetkova sits with Bethany Boyo to discuss growing up in Moscow, mobilising her entire year group at just 11-years-old and moving to the UK at the tender age of 16-years-old.
And broadcaster turned entrepreneur Laura Jackson is disrupting the homeware sphere and she’s making no apologies with her online marketplace Glassette, where she has built a community for artisans and creatives to sell their pieces and also for the girlfriends, boyfriends and friends who want to make their house a home, without a hefty price tag and the usual scrutiny and exclusivity that comes with the market. In short, Jackson has opened a door that was often shut for many.
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