FEATURE
Distinctive- Jack Taylor outside the firm ' s quirky Qube HQ.
“ We’ ve sold businesses from Scotland to Cornwall and everywhere in between,” he tells Tees Business.
And he’ s optimistic that Teesside’ s resilience will help overcome the property market’ s relative lull country-wide.
He said:“ With everything that’ s going on in the world, there’ s understandably been a bit more uncertainty from buyers.“ There are often things in upcoming budgets, for example, that mean people hold back from transacting to see if they’ ll be any worse off when and if it happens.
“ The previous budget, for example, where there were some increases in capital gains tax, that did have a real effect on the market. An extra 4 % or 6 % on a sale for a seller is a huge amount of money.
“ But Teesside has been very resilient. We are still dealing with a lot of transactions, including some big ones too, which is great to see.
“ We’ ve been getting lots of new large instructions recently- new properties and businesses to the market, which people are looking to sell. And sellers are always the first step to a buoyant market- you need sellers to make buyers.”
Among the notable large-scale projects on the Parker Barras books at the moment is the sale of the flagship House of Fraser store in Darlington.
After more than 100 years of retail history, the iconic former Binns store finally closed in March after an 18-month stay of execution.
Now, says Jack, it’ s about securing the
best deal for the owner and the town – and initial signs are promising.
He said:“ A few schemes have been designed for the property, including multiple retail units on the ground floor and more than 50 flats above. At the moment, we’ ve got some great interest in that – the market really likes that opportunity.
“ We’ re helping the owner with the planning and dealing with the architects, and we’ re now carrying out viewings – it’ s a full start-to-finish experience that we’ re giving this client. We’ re hoping that something will happen with that soon – no time frame but hopefully by the end of the year.
“ But it is a great development opportunity and something in that property would make a huge difference to Darlington town centre.”
But with 70-plus combined years of experience in the Parker Barras office – including Jack’ s grandad David, who was lured out of retirement to add his expertise to the mix – another service the firm excels in is off-market deals.
Jack explained:“ We have a huge database of active buyers who are looking for purchase opportunities, be it an investment or development, and often when something comes across our desk, we can make a few phone calls and have the property sold.
“ It’ s something we pride ourselves on and comes from the experience we have in our team. It’ s all done without the glare of publicity or anything, so there’ s a lot more privacy for sellers and buyers.”
And conscious of always moving with the times, you’ ll be seeing more and more of Parker Barras on social media outlets.
Jack said:“ Something we’ ve been focusing more on recently is building our investors and buyers network. The majority of work is still done by the traditional means of advertising online – things like Rightmove, Zoopla, various other portals and our own website.
“ But we’ re putting more of a focus on social media at the moment, with lots of videos and drone footage of properties, introductions to businesses, properties for sale and properties to rent.
“ So, it’ s the range, really- Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn. And from the initial first few videos we’ ve done, we’ ve generated a great deal of inquiries, so it’ s definitely something we’ ll be doing more of.”
If you have any questions about properties or businesses you may want to sell, or that may be available on the market, speak to one of Parker Barras’ expert advisers on 01642 987987, email hello @ parkerbarras. co. uk, call into their premises in Windward Way, Middlehaven, or visit parkerbarras. co. uk
The voice of business in the Tees region | 107