Switched on to diversification:?Henry Davis of International Property has teamed up wth two electrical engineers to establish www.yourenergy watch.com mark condren

Estate agents all over the country have been experiencing a permanent bad day at the office ever since prices went into freefall and banks stopped lending money for mortgages.

Reports abound of some agencies not having sold a single property in months. The deepening recession has seen many businesses shut up shop, while others have reduced staff numbers and even slashed wages to counter the effects of a dismal home sales market.

The lucky few still in employment are finding it tough. Yet despite being the butt of global jokes at the moment, the really canny among them are proving to be a fairly resilient bunch.

Faced with the startling reality of a new property market they've been forced to broaden their horizons and branch out into new areas of business – and their efforts aren't going unnoticed or unaided.

Alan Cooke, chief executive of the Irish auctioneers and Valuers Institute says that already residential agents are turning their hands to other sectors within the estate agency and valuation fields including lettings, property management, valuations, and even rent review work and landlord and tenant disputes. He says that the Institute is also assisting members who have been made redundant by helping them upskill at little or no cost.

Lettings department for Colliers

When Dublin-based estate agency Colliers Jackson-Stops realised that dwindling sales in the auction rooms was no longer going to sustain its business it turned its attention to high-end residential lettings, not quite a cash cow but with more people renting than buying, it's a more lucrative prospect than residential sales.

"During the boom, we focused on building up our auction business. We had a name for selling high profile period homes in Dalkey and Killiney and would have regularly made the headlines with sales on St Mary's Road in Ballsbridge for over €5m back in 2001," says Peter Kenny, associate director and head of city residential with the firm.

"In more recent times it's been very hard to assess the market because nothing is selling. Although we still have a very strong residential sales department we decided we needed to plan for the future and that's how our new lettings service came about."

Set up just a few months ago Colliers lettings department is headed by Gillian Ryan. Most of the properties on its books for rent are high-end homes that were originally on the market for sale but failed to attract a buyer. "These vendors still want to sell their homes but are prepared to wait for the market to recover, while generating income in the interim," says Ryan adding that demand for top quality rental properties is still strong despite the current down turn.

Indeed, the upside for renters is that they can now live in a property they would normally not be able to afford – like a fantastic four-bed 250sq m detached house on 2.7 acres in Enniskerry which Colliers is quoting a rent (negotiable) of €2,500 a month.

Colliers Jackson-Stops 01-633 3700

French property and wine tours

Diversification has become the name of the game in France for Irish sisters Suzanne and Karen O'Reilly, owners of the successful Bidsinfrance, specialising in property in the Rousillion region, who have turned to drink in an effort to beat the recession.

The pair recently set up their own wine tour company.

"During the boom years, which for us in Perpignan were 2000 to 2007, we saw changes in the type of buyers we got. In the early stages, our Irish clientele were buying second homes to enjoy time in the sun with friends and family, then we had a huge influx of investors, mainly interested in two-bed apartments and for long-term rentals," explains Suzanne.

"Things started to slow down in Autumn 2007. Investors were sitting on the fence and those looking for holiday homes were being extremely cautious.

"We began to look around for a new niche in the market, a business we could run parallel to the property business, and so we formed The French Tour Company.

"The tours are going great and people are amazed at how much they can learn, from visiting four or five vineyards. Our aim is to demystify the whole wine scene. We take people to meet some typical French characters and visit hidden out-of-the-way vineyards that a tourist would never find.

"The two businesses marry well and actually complement each other. In fact some people on the wine tours have been so impressed, they want to come back and look at property."

www.thefrenchtourco.com and www.bidsinfrance.com

The business of going green

Henry Davis of International Property, an Irish-based UK property company, specialised solely in UK commercial and residential property until recently. The downturn has forced him to diversify into a new green energy consultancy business.

"We still sell residential buy-to-let apartments and commercial office leasing, and also offer a complete after sales, rental and management," explains Davis.

"However, about a year ago, sales started to reduce on a monthly basis. At that time we were managing an apartment development in the UK, and I noticed that electricity bills were extremely high.

"I investigated ways of cutting electricity bills through things like changing over to low-energy lightbulbs and various other measures. I did a lot of research and discovered I could cut the building's electricity by 40%," explains Davis.

Joining up with two electrical engineers, Davis recently established www.yourenergywatch.com, which offers clients a feasibility service, and follow-up consulation on how to drastically reduce energy bills.

Davis feels that energy conservation is the business of the future.

"The typical pay-back time for investing in insulating and upgrading a home used to be around five years. Now pay-back time for the average household is nearer to 18 months.

"I'm confident the market will eventually recover. For people who have money to spend, now is definitely a good time to buy."

www.internationalproperty.ie

Savills squares up to the future

As one of the country's top estate agencies Savills is all too aware of the need to diversify in a downturn. As well as expanding its property management business it's also set up a new advisory service on building energy regulations and established a multi-gift card scheme for shopping centres.

"During the boom, all departments were extremely busy," says Angus Potterton, managing director.

"But as transaction-led business has slowed down we've relocated staff into property management to service this growing area where we now have a team of over 30 people," says Potterton, adding that the company has been providing a property management service for the commercial sector since 1998. It now has one of the largest property management departments in the country.

"Last year our property management portfolio of commercial properties was valued in excess of €6bn, and over €250m goes through our property management books on an annual basis," says Potterton.

Another recent initiative has been a multi-centre gift card scheme. "Companies or individuals buy a pre-paid debit card which acts as a gift card that can be used in many of the schemes we manage, namely, Liffey Valley, Mahon Point, Merchants Quay, White Water, Northside, City West, West End in Blanchardstown and Victoria Square in Belfast.

"We've also diversified into providing property related advice for clients on the Building Energy Rating Certificate and providing a co-ordinated approach on the BER process.

"In addition, we have set up a property management procurement service which we use to procure as many generic services as we can for all our centres, such as electricity, security, cleaning etc, " he adds.

Savills 01-618 1300; www.savills.ie