Shahid Iqbal knows a thing or two about property investment.  Over the last ten years he’s built up a reasonable investment portfolio in the UK and Middle East and runs a highly profitable overseas estate agency business, Investors Provident.  In February 2008, he launched Property Wire with business partner Hetal Shah.  It now boasts over 60,000 unique users a month and a database of more than 15 000 international investors. 

Ashley Rigg:  Hi Shahid, thanks for taking the time the talk to me today.  How’s business at the moment?

Shahid Iqbal:  We’ve been quite busy, but as it’s coming up to Christmas it’s slowing down and we’re down to a skeleton staff, so I’m manning the phones at the moment.

AR:  Lucky you!  I won’t keep you long.  Tell me a little bit about Property Wire, for our readers who are not familiar with what you do?

SI:  Sure, our aim is to be a one-stop-shop for investors looking for information about international real estate.   We’re a news portal and we break around 5 to 8 stories a day but the aim is to increase this substantially in the coming months.

AR:  I really rate your editorial, I link to it all the time in our news section.  How big is the team?

SI:  I’m not exactly sure about the number of freelance journalist we have on board now, but the whole team is run by Ray Clancy who’s worked for The Times, Telegraph and Mail on Sunday. 

AR:  How do you make money?

SI:  Our initial focus has been on building our brand, content and traffic.  At the moment we make money from display advertising and email promotions but we plan to expand this in future.

AR:  What’s the cheapest price you offer and what will I get for my money?

SI:  Straight to the point then!  Our cheapest package is £150 for a banner on the site.  You get 10 000 impressions. It’s a CPM (cost per thousand) model.

AR: So it’s just display advertising, you can’t list your properties?

SI:  Not at the moment no but there are many options.  Agents and developers can advertise on our newsletter which goes to 15 000 investors, for example.

AR:  What does it cost?

SI: It’s $2000 per newsletter as the exclusive sponsor.

AR:  Are there any free options?

SI: You can upload press releases to our company news section for free.  There’s an editorial screening process but we publish most of the releases we receive.

AR:  Sounds like a good deal.  It’s free content for you as well I suppose, so everyone wins.

SI:  Exactly, it’s quite a bit of work though.  We struggle to keep up with demand to be honest.

AR:  Do you have any high profile advertisers signed up so far?

SI:  We only launched it a few months ago but there’s Sigma, a developer in Egypt, SPC Overseas, a Spanish based agent specializing in Brazil and a few others.  It tends to be investment specialists rather than clients selling traditional second homes. 

AR:  What’s the profile of your audience?

SI:  We need to run consumer surveys in the New Year but anecdotal evidence suggests we have an audience of highly sophisticated and savvy buyers from many different countries.  It’s 45% Europe, mainly UK, 25% North & South America and the rest from the Middle East and Asia.

AR: Let’s move away from Property Wire for a minute.  As an investor yourself and an overseas agent, what advice do you have for readers who want to target experienced investors?

SI:  Get your product right!   Bog standard offers don’t work anymore.  Investors are very price sensitive; you need to demonstrate that you have a good deal with comparables and offer an exit, with a buy-back scheme for example.  Also look to investors in China, India and the Far East.  There are still cash investors in the UK but the UK equity release market is dead – for the moment anyway.

AR:  Any favoured destinations?

SI:   I think the below-market-value segment in the UK has potential.  If you can get 30-40% off property, you’ll do well.  The market may go down 15% or so next year but with these kinds of discounts you’ll do ok in the long term.  I’d also look at the Middle East.  Not Dubai but I think Qatar and particularly Abu Dhabi look good.  Abu Dhabi is a cash and oil rich state and the government has outlined a plan to buy any unsold property within a certain time frame.  They’ve even offered to bail out the larger projects in Dubai.

AR: What about marketing to investors.  Any advice?

SI:   I think the mistake many agents make is putting too much money into Google Adwords.  Having a good product and using PR effectively for both SEO and word-of-mouth is one of the best strategies.  It’s important to write beneficial and informative pieces on your website or blog to create value that others will link to.
AR:  Most agents don’t have the time to do this.

SI:   Maybe not, put PR agencies can help.  It’s worth the time and expense.

AR:  It’s good advice if you’ve done your basic on-the-page optimization correctly.  Natural search is a free distribution channel and should be a strategic marketing priority for all agents. 

SI:  I agree, it’s fundamental.

AR:  Final question:  What advice to you have for surviving the downturn?

SI:   I spoke to a developer the other day whose availability list had not changed in 2 months.  It’s a really tough market.  My advice would be first and foremost, pick good investments.  Cut down on your over-heads, lower your offline marketing spend and concentrate on key exclusive projects or at least your best properties.  The next 12 months or so will be difficult but those that can survive will be much stronger for it.

AR:  Thanks Shahid, best of luck with the site.