Client Interview

Interview with David Pearl

Over a glass of carrot juice, and enthusing about his recent trip on a nuclear submarine, David Pearl of Pearl & Coutts talked to Susan Freeman about how he came to be in property.

In 1965, with no experience or money to speak of, Pearl opened a Hackney estate agency and started to buy property. Undeterred by a lack of funds, his first purchase was in Islington for the “princely sum of £1,000” from a lady vendor who gave him a 100% interest free mortgage because she liked him! This was closely followed by a further purchase funded by a 100% loan secured on his mother’s home. “I had lots of enthusiasm when I was young but no money. Once on the treadmill things began to happen.”

40 years on “and a lot of work later” the portfolio, which is 93% commercial and 7% residential, is valued at between £1 and £1.25 billion. The empire is run by a team of 70 at White Lion Street, Islington. Pearl is not a trader and admits to being “a very, very reluctant seller”. As he sees it, “you make enemies if you sell at a profit. You have to pay for agents, solicitors and pay tax so it’s just not logical.” Of course he is tempted to sell by the current market but believes “the market will turn eventually but the market doesn’t need to turn to find bargains”.

Despite having as many as 40 joint venture partners, Pearl contends that he has “never had a cross word with one of them”. An “older gentleman” with whom he bought numerous properties in the early 70s, “really got him on the road”. “They found the money and without them the company wouldn’t be the size it is today. There is a great deal of trust with my joint venture partners. It is more important to me that my partners make money than I do.” This has proved a successful formula since, as Pearl points out, “recessions have come and gone and we only had one small blip in 1989/1990 when prices plunged”.

Pearl’s reputation is important to him. “I don’t think that anyone in the property business would say a bad word about us. At the end of the day it is a seller’s market and agents will phone people that they like when they have something to sell.”

Is there anything he would have done differently? To his mind, his best decision was to buy the 330 freehold Victorian buildings comprising the Jesus Hospital Estate in Bethnal Green for £1.2 million in 1970, which he then saved from demolition. “CPO was the biggest problem in the 1960s in Bethnal Green. The Council wanted to CPO and demolish the whole estate. They had horrendous CPO powers and wanted to pay site value only. We fought tooth and nail and won and saved some magnificent buildings.” On a lighter note, Pearl claims his biggest regrets are “buying 3% of Tottenham Football Club and having too many large business lunches!”

In his spare time Pearl loves looking at buildings. “I find them fascinating. I love architecture and old buildings, particularly Georgian architecture. Is that sad? The beauty is if you get it right you can actually earn money.” He admits that “if it goes wrong you can also lose a lot”. He is not a fan of 60s architecture, “looking back it’s unbelievable we built such garbage. I can’t wait for the bulldozers to tackle the rest of those buildings!”

Pearl loves what he does and claims to have even more energy and enthusiasm than 20 years ago. He clearly takes his fitness regime seriously, cycling to and from meetings and training 4 times a week. Pearl’s advice to somebody coming into the property market now is unequivocal. “You can’t be a property entrepreneur on your own without help. You have to have people around you with access to finance.”