Commercial property blog

By Tori Turner

The market may be on its knees – but it’s a great time to have a baby.

This is the consensus view of my closest bunch of female property pals, following a heated discussion at our new budget lunch venue, Strada, last week.

One of our number was rumbled as being “with child” when she refused a glass of Pinot, instead asking the embarrassed waitress for a ginger tea (for the uninitiated, this helps to ward off morning sickness).

After congratulating her, we started to speculate if this could be the start of a new trend for property’s über-femmes.

As a group, we are all far enough into our thirties to hear the biological clock ticking loudly. Up until now, we believed having a baby could wreck our careers.

Nowadays, taking a short career break looks like a smart idea.

There’s no chance of a bonus, little hope of promotion, and few killer deals to get your teeth into. In short, we wouldn’t be missing much.

But girls, before you flush away your contraceptive pills and head down to Mothercare, please remember that we work in one of the most institutionally sexist industries in the world. Continue reading »

By Susan Freeman

As a lawyer you do become inured to all the unflattering lawyer jokes but it’s comforting to find that bankers and estate agents are now almost as popular as lawyers.
Even so, the results of the recent survey by the Bar Standards Board are fairly astonishing. According to their survey only a meagre 1% of adults trust estate agents.
Bankers are apparently almost as low in the public esteem with only 2% of adults trusting them. I haven’t enquired as to whether the public’s attitude to lawyers was monitored!
We have all had our fill of bad news stories recently so I’ve been trying to find some good news. I have to say it’s not easy at the moment and even a press search of the words ‘good news’ throws up the words ‘no good news’ on most fronts. Continue reading »

By Lydia Stockdale

Work experience until 5.30pm, waitressing job from 7pm – that was my working day for a few months, back when I was desperately trying to break into journalism.

Working for free is neither a new or controversial subject for those working in the media. If you decide to pursue a career in the industry, you accept that you will have to write dozens of letters begging for unpaid work.

Then, once you’re actually in the office, you know you have to smile broadly, work hard and demonstrate that you will be eternally grateful for the opportunity.

Until recently though, property graduates have largely avoided having to work for no money. They were the ones in demand.

Now they are facing a new reality, one where there aren’t enough jobs to go around. If they seriously want to start a career in property, they have to do what it takes to stand out. Unpaid work is an obvious way to do this.

Continue reading »