Welcome to the Finance Show with Joe . He's Joe . I'm just some schmo . We've got a very special guest today Karem Lakiss from Mayfair Real Estate Welcome .
Thank you , thanks guys , thanks for having me , Karem .
I'm so happy to have you on you and I have been trying to tee this up for months now .
It's been a while .
The bloke went to Lebanon , he went to Dubai . He was cruising around the world whilst the rest of us had to endure winter . He had the time of his life , but thank you so much for coming .
No , thanks for having me .
It's a very funny story between Karem and I . Karem actually used to be my landlord over in Belmore , so when we first started in Simple , we were moving around and we were just trying to find the best office space , but you were the first person to actually give us a tenancy and you gave us office space .
So I've always been grateful to Karim because he actually gave us the opportunity to be able to work as a team and , you know , work from a certain hub and really build a culture . So thank you so much , karim .
No , thank you for joining us . That was a new venture for us . We bought that building and we had no tenants , so we kind of helped each other . It was a good synergy .
It was definitely a good synergy . So , Karem , I just kind of want to start this off with introducing you . You're a real estate agent and you specialise in Belmore , Belfield . Can you give us the certain suburbs that you're taking care of at the moment ?
Yeah , so we are based in Belmore . So the business is Mayfair Real Estate , owned by myself and my business partner Chantal . We specialise kind of in Canterbury , bankstown but inner west sort of .
So Belmore is a little bit unique where you can go out into the Canberra Bankstown district like suburbs like Le Canbar , greenacre , bankstown , but then also venture back into Belfield , roselands , kingsgrove , enfield , into the inner west a little bit Dulwich Hill , marrickville .
We've had a few good sales in Marrickville so it's very encompassing in terms of where we can go geographically . But as I say to most people these days , I don't believe you're capped by where you are anymore .
I totally believe that real estate has transformed so much in the last few years with the help of social media that you know , as long as you're a good agent , you can market correctly , you can probably sell anywhere you like .
How did you get your start in real estate ?
So I'll try to be very short with this story . I started real estate my career in October of 2015 .
So I was , like in my early to mid-30s sort of Previous to that worked with Dad in the service station game since I was a kid , since 14 years old , working in family business , transitioned out of that at the age of 30 , worked with Emirates for about three years at Sydney Airport as a ground handler for him and then realised it was a great job but just
wasn't what I wanted to do . Always loved real estate , always loved property . Obviously , I like to speak , and you'll find that out through this podcast . I love the art of negotiation and just helping people . So I went and got my licence while working at Emirates and then pretty much quit .
Once I got my licence , reached out to a friend of mine in Bankstown that owned an agency . He gave me a shot . I did two years with him and then my business partner , chantal , encouraged me to jump on board and we started Mayfair . And here we are .
So I need to understand something Now . If you go office , you will see a massive monopoly .
I was going to ask is Mayfair like Mayfair on the monopoly board ? That's exactly what it is .
It's the most expensive property on the monopoly board , so the name actually came from a good friend of mine years ago , before I was even thinking about doing real estate . He mentioned once and then , when we were thinking of starting real estate , me and chantal were like what could we call it ?
And I made the suggestion and we're just both like , yeah , this is so us . It's not traditional , it's a little bit gimmicky , which is what we wanted . We wanted a fresh approach . We still want to be conformed to the usual .
Yeah because when you walk into you know Mayfair and Belmore , you don't feel like you're in an old school 90s real estate agency . It's such a dynamic work environment . It's very cultural . I think the average age of the employee there's like 25 or 27 or something .
We're a very young team , yeah .
So it's just such a . It's refreshing , I think that's the best way to put it . I feel refreshed going in there and then I'm guessing that's a massive point of difference for your clients as well Like they walk in and they're like oh , this is a lot more energetic than you know . Going to I'm not going to name names but going to another real estate agent .
Yeah , 100% . And that was our point of difference . Like from the start we started Mayfair with a mindset of saying we didn't want to do what everyone else was doing .
I like to think I identified pretty early the start of like social media and what I could do for real estate , and that my old employer will kind of cap with what we can do in terms of video production and stuff .
No one was doing videos back then for real estate , so we always wanted to be a little bit left of field and that's our personality , like if you can't be who you are , there's no point doing it , right ? So I'm only genuine to my source . I can only be who I am . So our office is very funky . There's speakers in the roof , there's a bar in the office .
You've seen the bar . We've got a gong in the office . I mean Like we're just , it's who we are , we don't change it . I swear I heard what I wanted to hear . I heard bong . No , definitely not a bong , a gong G-O-N-G .
Liam , get the TikTok camera out . So just to deviate away from bongs , can you just give us a little bit of insight as to what you've seen in the real estate market over the last five years ?
Well , it's been a rollercoaster ride , hasn't it ? I think everyone's copped it .
Yeah , In Arabic we call that kalnoha .
Yeah , most definitely . Look , I think… Going back now four years , maybe COVID , I think , really changed the game for everyone . I still remember , vividly remember , I had an auction on the Saturday on the day where we had the first COVID breakout in 2020 , and they were like literally shutting things down on the Saturday .
They were like they're going to cancel auctions , they're going to cancel open homes . And I had a vendor call and I was selling a property in Belfield the brand new duplex , and it was stressing . It was like what do we do ? Do we cancel it ? I'm like I've got buyers , I think we go , I think we proceed , let's just get it going . Thankfully , we sold it .
We broke a record during those times . But then I remember it was like the world was going to fall over . Everyone was like property prices are going to drop . The world's going to like the sky is going to .
It was a deceased estate , about 500 plus square metres , beautiful street , beautiful property , and I could not get one person interested in it and I was like what is going on ? This thing is a diamond in the rough . I encouraged everyone . I could think of developers come , you can build a duplex on it . Overlooks the golf course .
No one wanted to touch it Eventually sold it for $2 million . That property today would sell for $3 million in a heartbeat .
Really .
Property today would sell for $3 million in a heartbeat , Really In a heartbeat . And I've still got guys calling me today that I spoke to back then saying to me I should have listened to you . I told you all no one fucking listened to me .
This is what I've been trying to tell people for months and months Just get into the market . And one key thing that I like to bring up is councils are not approving new dwellings and land runs out , and the way that Sydney is positioned is they can't go any further east than Bondi .
It's Bondi , and then there's water .
There's no islands . We don't do that stuff that Singapore does , where they reclaim land .
Yeah , dubai , did that too . Yeah , that was Dubai , where they do . Is it called rec , right ? Yeah , dubai , the palm tree thing .
Was that Dubai ? That was Dubai , when they do . Is it called reclaimed land ? I think that's what it's called . Japan does it as well , so we're limited with the amount of properties or new properties that are going to be released . Yeah .
And then on top of that , with the building commissioner coming in and high-rises being on the down like nobody wants to live in an apartment anymore because of strata fees , and you know all the things that come with it , we now see properties are just skyrocketing Land houses .
Anything that's new build , I'm imagining , is selling for quite a lot , yeah new builds have gone through the roof .
Further to what you're saying , not only is it becoming scarce with land , but the building cost is astronomical . Yeah , so what's happened is land prices have gone up , so building prices have gone up . So how do they justify it anymore ? How does a builder now pay overs for the land ? Then it's costing him double to build .
So where's he going to get his gross realisation from ? Yeah , the client Probably not . Yeah , you know , I try to always educate my buyers and say look if you have to do it yourself , but it doesn't always correlate that way . No , you know what I mean . So it's getting dicey out there .
Yeah , I mean , there's so many builders who feel like closing down recently . Do we have a number for that ? We talked about this in another episode .
Yeah , it was like yeah , I think it was like 56 shut down in the month of July or June or something .
Yeah , where do they make ?
Because I heard that builders the costs have gone up , but they have to keep their prices low to remain competitive , because someone else will just come in and cut them off .
So what do they do ? They close .
D on't well , there's nothing you can do . And don't forget , immigration is not slowing down . No , In fact , it's doubling and tripling .
Don't bring that up . So yeah well we all know it . Apparently , I'm on an ASIO list because I've been telling people off well , telling Anthony Albanese off , just being like , hey , mate , like there's a lot of kids , kids under the age of 25 , that can't afford property right now because of the level of migration . I'm not saying stop migration , I'm a migrant .
You know , my brother and my sister were born in Lebanon . You know my parents are Lebanese . I'm a first-generation Australian . I'm just saying just pump the brakes a little bit . You know , like I understand , we need to keep the economy going . They can't do anything about interest rates because inflation is still high , but like we've got to do something .
You know , and we spoke about this off camera , you're not seeing many buyers under the age of 25 in your areas , are you Not ?
in my areas , I mean , the medium house price in Belmore is probably about 1.2 , 1.3 . And like that's a three-bedroom that needs a lot of work , yeah Right . So a brand-new duplex , for instance , $2 million is your entry level .
Wow .
So not many people can afford those ranges , especially in the lower end of the market . So a lot of my buyers yes , they are kind of 35 plus what I am seeing is a lot of downsizes as well buying brand new properties . So maybe they want to enjoy the last part of their lives in something really nice and well done Boutique . Yeah , 100% .
And also parents assisting their children , buying homes , and a common conversation is if I don't help them , who's going to help them ? I need to get them to the market . I need to get them to the market , whether it's a unit or if it's someone more wealthy and they can afford to buy themselves , their child , a nice big home , so be it .
And I've had a couple of those stories as well .
I had a borrower recently contact me and he's in his 60s . He's done very well for himself . You know . He's done commercial properties and everything and , as we all know , property just keeps going up . He has three kids and he gifted them $500,000 each to go and buy a property .
That's insane , okay , like I hear that and I'm like whoa , that is like cash , like not , not , not .
He's the one who's got it under the mask .
Yeah , yeah . But I just kind of like heard that and I was like whoa . But then I thought to myself like this guy's actually helping his kids out , this guy's really like just making sure his kids are set up Similar to what you said . If he doesn't help them , who's going to ?
Because the Similar to what you said . If he doesn't help them , who's going to ? Because the government doesn't . Well , I've got one better than that , if you've got time for a really quick story .
No , no , go , shoot , shoot , shoot .
I was selling a property in Roselands last year , met these buyers an older couple , husband and wife , walked in shorts , t-shirt in thongs , unassuming , you know , I've always learned a rule in real estate ever . Anyway , they came in , it was a brand new great home . Price guide was about 3.2 , 3.3 .
Comes in , sees me and he's like , yeah , looking for my daughter , I'm like no problem . He walked around , came back and saw me . He goes I really love this house , I really love it . He goes you can't come here today . I go what are you looking at spending ? Like , what's the budget ? $4 million to spend for each child to buy him a house .
He goes I've bought him all a house and this is the last one . And in my head I'm like what ? And he goes it's all cash . He goes no finance , it's all in the bank , $16 million In the bank . So I'm like , okay , so we bring the daughter through . She doesn't like the house and I couldn't believe her . I would have just hated it .
Yeah , I would have just been like yeah , thank you .
Anyway , I met them , like last September , I stayed with them . I stayed with them Because I knew I had a red hot buyer . When you identify a buyer , you always want to sell them something right ? Yeah , I listed this other gorgeous property in Roselands earlier this year in . February and I called him straight away . I go , mate . His name Came to the open .
I had 30 people in the open home . He shows up , he looks around and he just goes back to the house fresco . He just sits on the lounge , hums out and the daughter came through and he goes . I'll wait until they're all done . They're all finished and he goes . What do you want for it ? I go , mate three will buy it today . He goes . All right , he goes .
I'll come you Monday evening . He goes . My daughter's not sure about the living room . I brought them all through . Everyone came . She was worried about the couch and the configuration so I made everyone reconfigure the styling . We picked up couches . Are you talking ?
about styling .
Yeah , because she couldn't work it out . We picked up couches , we moved couches , I opened up the dining for her . I reconfigured the whole layout . I go , it works . I'm like done . He's like all right , let's do a deal . I'm like done . 2.95 million , sign the contract the next day .
Soldi I , I'm just like damn I'm just a luxury , to just be like I'm not sure if the styling's gonna work , I'd rock up and go to a house and go .
It's a house yeah , yeah , how much . Well , these are the things we do as agents . Right , you got to get a deal done . Like I turned into a removalist that day . Like we , we changed the whole home for her .
I've got to just explain styling to our viewers and listeners . So whenever we're selling a house or we're getting a house valued , you can bring professional stylists through Correct . Am I correct in saying that these are individuals that will come in and uplift the value of your house through furniture artwork , everything .
So any brand new property that I sell , it is a mainstay that I encourage my builders or my vendors to style the property because , number one , it's going to photograph way better . Number two , you can't do a video with an empty property , and video content is how we now push it further down the line and get more eyeballs on it .
And number three , when people walk in , they want to envisage how they're going to live in this house . If a bedroom is small and you put a bed in it , all of a sudden it doesn't become small anymore . You alleviate concerns , you show them how things will look and they fall in love with it a lot better . So styling is a non-negotiable .
Five years ago no one wanted to know about it . Six , seven . I remember when I first told someone house , are you crazy ? I'm like that . Five , six grand will get you 30 , 40 , yeah , believe me . So now it's a mainstay .
So the first time I ever experienced styling was , uh , 2018 lend lease . We're selling a bunch of apartments in the city and I was working at macquarie at the time and , uh , one of my clients was purchasing a property in there and they're like , oh , it's three buildings over this showroom . Come and have a look .
And I walked in and they've got the furniture and they've got the stone . It would have cost them a million and a half like $1.5 million to fit out this commercial suite in the Lendlease building . And the one thing I remembered more than anything was the smell .
And then I came home and I spoke to my brother and I was like everything in it smells so good . And he goes yeah , because they're trying to hit you with every single sense . They're trying to hit you with the lighting , they're trying to get you with the touch . They're trying to get you with . You know the smell , everything , everything that you hear .
They're trying to get you with that to make sure you sign the contract of sale . And I go yeah , that's right . And then he turns to me and he goes did you want to buy one ? And I go I was trying to think of every single dollar . I had to try and buy one of these properties .
I wish I did , but like it's absolutely necessary , because if I walk into an empty shell and it smells like six-day-old food , I'm not going to buy that .
No , there's no imagination . You can't see yourself Like . I've heard it a million times . People walk into an empty house . They're like oh , I don't know , I don't know if my dining table will fit , I don't know if I'll get a lounge in here . They just they can't see the vision . So we need to show them the vision .
We need to really put it out there and show them this is what you're buying , this is how it's going to look , Makes sense , it's 2024 .
Yeah , however , belmore I know personally just because of my community Belmore , roselands , punchbowl , condal Park , chester Hill , Bass Hill every auction has 100 people there . Yeah , why do you think that the property is so much more in demand now than it was , let's say , eight years ago ? Or what's the difference to 2024 ? Is it CDC compliance ?
Is it because people are more aware of duplexes ? Are people more aware of townhouses ? What do you think it is ? Why do you think the auctions are a lot more packed ?
I think first and foremost is supply is down . You look at all the key indicators , realestatecom domain , all these guys , they'll tell you listings are down . So naturally , in an environment where supply is down , demand is always going to go up , because you've still got people every day getting married , getting divorced , passing away .
Real estate is always going to turn , no matter what right , in a down market or a hot market , it's always going to be real estate . But what we're seeing is there's no shortage of supply and also a shortage of supply of brand new builds as well . So when they do come on the market , you have this influx of people that they can't get enough .
For instance , there's only one brand new dwelling for sale in Belmore at the moment , in the whole suburb . It's a duplex that I'm selling and that's across all agents Across the whole suburb . Wow , there's one . You go , look at it , there's one .
I mean , traditionally , belmore's not a huge suburb Like we've probably got about 14,000 dwellings Like so you don't get . It's not a suburb that we have 30 , 40 listings on at one go . Yeah , but it's the only brand new duplex for sale in the whole suburb . Wow . So , traditionally , what do you think's going to happen ? Supply and demand .
So that's a big key indicator . I think I think interest rates skewed the market when they were so cheap during COVID . A lot of people got used to that rate , weren't aware of the rates that we probably were subjected to a little bit more in the early 2000s and the late 90s . So we've seen that , we've been there , we've done that .
But everyone's kind of waiting . I feel like everyone's kind of saying waiting for rates to drop , waiting for rates to drop . But the opposite's going to happen . You get one rate drop and they're going to be charging down the field , like Mel Gibson and Braveheart . I'm telling you I can see it . I can see it .
Freedom , yeah , literally , literally , just like coming down and they're going to be pouring in . So my dad taught me a really good line a long , long time ago . I'll never forget it . And he goes real estate is you buy expensive today , cheap tomorrow . I'm trying to understand that in my head .
It's expensive today , yeah , it's cheap tomorrow , yeah , you know that is 100% correct .
Never forget it .
Yeah , I'm going to use that in my daily mantra . Now you buy expensive . Today it's cheap , tomorrow that's it .
He said it to me when I was a kid . I was at an auction with him in Mount Lewis never forget it and he missed out on a property and he was so angry with himself and then everyone was like don't worry , it was too expensive . I remember he said to me he's like real estate is cheap it's expensive .
Today it's . You know , we've bashed Melbourne all the time , but when people think of Australia , they think of Sydney , yeah , they think of Harbour Bridge , centrepointe Tower , opera House . They come here and we are getting that high amount of migration like you spoke about earlier .
We are seeing the shortage in demand , so I think you're 100% correct in saying that . I do have one particular question , though . Is it duplex sites that are extremely in demand across all your suburbs ?
Yeah , A lot of guys will call me builders and say , do you have anything , a duplex site ? And I ask them are you particular on where Some people really like to build in a particular suburb ? Because they just know it really well . Others are like as long as it stacks , because they just know it really well .
Others are like as long as it stacks If the numbers are right , if I can buy and build and sell and I'm making a profit margin , I don't care where it is .
There's one suburb I want to talk about , it's Belfield . Yes , have you done much work there ? Yes , so I was on the phone with my cousin I think it was last Saturday or the Saturday before he missed out on auction who last few weeks he goes , oh , the property . I was capped at 3.25 . The property went for 3.8 .
And I actually sat there and I said to him over the phone I go in Belfield and he goes yeah , Belfield , and growing up for me Belfield was never a prominent area Like it was . Belfield was just next to Belmore , next to Lakemba kind of thing , yeah , but now it's like considered a pristine area . It's a very hot suburb . What's the ?
demographic , like who's moving into there ? So , a lot of young families , yeah , lots of young families , and it's a combination of a couple of things , right ? So , as you said , belfield is in the middle of Belmore and Strathfield and Enfield yeah , hence the yeah , belmore Field and Philstraffield yeah , a combination .
Very , very creative .
Yeah , doesn't have a train station , right ? Some people's mindset with that is quite weird . When I speak to buyers they like the fact there's no train station because they associate train stations with noise hoodlums . Whatever , the case is probably back in the day and not so much now , but that's one thing .
It's got a really , really good school , primary school , st Michael's . It's got a great park . They've just upgraded Rudd Park . They've done a track and field around it . It's got good cafe scenes , nice restaurants . You're a stone's throw away from Belmore so you can catch a train and get to the CBD . You can drive to the M5 . You can drive to the M4 .
You can get your kids in a school in Strathfield . So you don't have to go spend $10 million in Stratford and buy an affluent home . You can spend three and a half to four maybe in Stratford and buy a really kick-ass home and still get your kids into the high-end schools in Stratford . Wow . So it's got this community factor around it .
Like it is a very community suburb . Everyone knows each other . Like I'll drive through Belford and I can pick out this person lives here . This person lives here . This person lives here . I'm actually selling a gorgeous brand new duplex in Belford right now at the moment , and we're getting inundated with inquiry Like it's just a hot suburb .
I'll give my cousin Issa .
Your number , yalla , you can sell him something , then Okay .
I've spoken to him . What Issa Dayoud yeah .
Yeah .
He was one of my groomsmen . He lives in the townhouse . Yeah , yeah , yeah , I've seen him .
Are you selling his townhouse or is ?
that We've got to find something to buy first , but yeah , I already know him . Yeah , yeah , yeah .
Once you look at us and you see the height and you see the facial features , you're like , oh wait , you are cousins .
Now that you've said that , I make the correlation .
Can we put a picture of Issa and I next to each other ? Oh , fantastic , he's going to be so upset that I'm mentioning him on this . Yeah , I think that's all the time that we have for this episode .
If you want to catch , if you need any help with finance or if you need any help with your home loans , you can reach us at wwwitsimplecomau and you can find Karim at mayfairrealestatecomau .
On Instagram is Mayfair Real Estate and also myself , the social agent on Instagram .
That's some schmo . My name is Joe , that's Karim , and thank you for tuning into this episode of the Finance Show with Joe .