A nice talk with Rebecca Zarr, from St Tropez real estate
Rebecca Zarr is the founder and Managing Director of Rebecca Zar, an international luxury property agency in St Tropez.
I love St Tropez, it a stunning village and Rerbecca has amazing properties on sale.
https://www.rebeccazarr.com/
Email adress rebecca@rebeccazarr.com
Dear Ilaria it is a great pleasure to share experiences of our real estate industry during these challenging times. My heart goes out to you in Northern Italy and I wish you and all our colleagues around the world a strong, happy and successful de-confinement.
Thanks so much for spent your time with me
- Rebecca how was the real estate market like before the pandemic?
I am based in Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera and the market had been active in the first months of the year with many serious buyers. I work over 2M, and specialise in the 5M + market offering a tailor- made property search service to private clients. Having worked in London and Singapore for many years, I spend a lot of time in London and have many clients based there.
Rebecca i love St Tropez, in the last years I came every summer for a few Days.
- Was your city, your region locked down?
The last day of school was Friday 13th March and President Macron announced a country wide strict lockdown from Tuesday 17th March. We will be beginning our progressive de-confinement from 11th May with schools and some businesses slowly re opening. With Saint-Tropez being a huge tourist destination we are still waiting for the green light for our restaurants, hotels and beaches.
How did you feel working during the quarantine?
We are lucky and grateful here in Saint-Tropez to be confined in a beautiful part of the world with lots of space and we were able to go out in the garden, go for walks and there is no shortage of fresh produce in the shops. Business has carried on similar to normal during the quarantine a part from the fact that it is not possible to do viewings. For me personally being confined to protect the health of our parents and grandparents did not feel like a chore at all and we were all happy to do this; however like many parents of young children, it has been challenging and tiring working with my 3 year old little boy at home.
- Did you take new sales assignment from property owners, were you able to sell properties?
Some clients of mine had an offer accepted on a property they had been considering for a while at 6.5 M and so it has been a busy time agreeing the terms of the sale for them. I have also taken on two new clients for private searches during quarantine and have been sending them properties to look at and discussing the market with them. I also have been introduced to 3 sellers whom I look forward to meeting post confinement.
- Did you find innovative tools which helped your daily job?
I found face to face meetings on Zoom to be extremely useful with my clients during lockdown. I also had zoom meetings and conferences with colleagues in London. I wish I’d had more videos of properties and that is something I would like to work on post lockdown.
- In your opinion, is it possible to sell houses only by organizing virtual tours for the potential buyers?
I think virtual tours are important, especially with most of my clients coming from overseas, and can help during the pre-selection stage. However to buy a property I am a big believer that you have to feel the home and its energy, admire the view, breath the air, hear the sounds, discover the neighbourhood and fall in love with it.
- What do you think will happen in the real estate market?
In my market the 5M + I believe things will still be active even if a little slower, Saint-Tropez has attracted some of the worlds wealthiest people for decades. The local family market here in Saint-Tropez will turnover too though people may take a little more time weighing up their decision. We are already seeing investors coming in with low offers hoping to get some deals and this could be a good idea. We may see a slowdown in the 500k-2M overseas second home market as people recover from the effects of the crisis. However, being the eternal optimist, with people having felt confined and frustrated for so long, I look forward to helping clients find their dream holiday home with lots of space, greenery, sounds of the ocean and with the promise of many years of family fun.
Grazie Rebecca
