Photo;Ben Kirchner

Greene & Co’s Managing Director David Pollock, and author of a new property guide, gives Christopher Middleton his top tips for buying and selling.

For many of us, buying or selling a house is war – both psychological and financial. We don’t so much purchase a house, as prise it out of the hands of the people who own it. We don’t so much sell a house, as surrender it to invaders. And right up until the last minute, the deal can be sabotaged by an act of panic or greed on either side.

“The whole business is a mass of contradictions,” says David Pollock, a north London estate agent who has been selling houses for the past 34 years. “The dynamic of people, money and property is fraught with emotion. That said, there is nearly always a key to a successful resolution, and that’s being able to see the situation from the other person’s point of view.”



And it’s not just hot air. “David is one of those rare     breeds in his profession that actually makes an effort to understand the needs of both the buyer and the seller,” says Harry Handelsman of the Manhattan Loft Corporation.

“He succeeds because he looks at everyone’s position in the deal,” adds John Hitchcox, chairman of the upmarket developers Yoo. “As a result, he finds the best outcome for everyone.”

Cast in the role of peacemaker, then, Pollock has set out to bring Buyer and Seller tribes still closer together, by writing an outspoken, new book entitled 101 Things Your Estate Agent Should Tell You.

Read the full article in the Telegraph Property Section www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertyadvice/8611016/Confessions-of-an-estate-agent.html

You can pick up a copy of ‘101 things an estate agent should tell you when buying or selling a property’ on Amazon now www.amazon.co.uk/Things-Estate-Should-Selling-Property/dp/0956734103

Just when we thought we were in for a nice summer! The unpredictable British weather this week is reminiscent of the almost tropical downpours that concluded Clerkenwell Design Week. This week you may have pulled out one of your Urban umbrellas that you picked up at Clerkenwell Design week from the quick thinking Urban Spaces team rescuing you from the rain.



Here is hoping the rest of the summer will be a scorcher!!

Clerkenwell design week was proudly sponsored by Urban Spaces. This year Urban Spaces sponsored the London Fieldworks installation – Spontaneous City – a permanent installation in Clerkewell Green that aims to bring awareness of the ecological and cultural value of urban green spaces. Look out for our installation in Clerkenwell Green.

Urban Spaces are proud to be sponsoring the London Fieldworks Spontaneous City installation at Clerkenwell Green

As London’s unique property specialist for a multitude of architectural and creative properties, we are the perfect fit for the sponsorship.

In the spirit of Clerkenwell Design Week Urban Spaces have joined forces with Love Anna James, offering the opportunity to win a unique fully restored antique Love Light Mono lamp worth £2000.

About the project...



London Fieldworks’ Spontaneous City  project is a poetic and eccentric space creation experiment for birds in urban green spaces. The sculptural ‘habitats’ are designed to contribute to the lifecycle of birds, providing spaces for shelter, nesting or feeding. Spontaneous City  for Clerkenwell Design Week will be assembled from hundreds of bespoke wooden bird and bug boxes reflecting the local architecture; a metaphorical interplay between the condition of the animal and the human, development and displacement, the voidance of nature. The assemblage of boxes is designed to evoke Clerkenwell’s ecclesiastical provenance and contemporary re-emergence as a model of modern European urban regeneration. Spontaneous City has developed out of a recent London Fieldworks project, Super Kingdom, commissioned by Stour Valley Arts for Kings Wood in Kent, where ‘show homes’ for animals were constructed based on the architecture of despots’ palaces. Super Kingdom was featured in Beyond Architecture Imaginative Buildings and Fictional Cities (Gestalten, 2009) and was awarded an Honorary Mention in the Hybrid Art category of ARS ELECTRONICA 2010. Find out more about London Fieldworks here.

See you at Clerkenwell Design Week.

Urbans Spaces by Greene & Co. have gone through a lot of planning and organisation but it is finally here. Our Fun Day is this Sunday 4th July at the Hornsey Cricket Club Crouch End and it is going to be a fantastic family fun day out. The thing about this fun day is that it is raising money and awareness about a great London charity Grief Encounter, who dedicate their time to helping bereaved children and their families.

Today HIP’s have been suspended which means that people who wish to sell their property no longer need to provide these. This comes as a great relief to many agents, our Managing Director, David Pollock has given us his opinion on this change

“Like most agents, we are delighted to see HIP’s get abolished. In our opinion, they have been an absolute disaster on two fronts. Firstly, they took away any spontaneity in the market, if someone was thinking about selling and just wanted to test out the reaction that putting their property on the market would get, to see if there are buyers out there for it, etc, it would cost them £300 to get the HIP done first.

Secondly, no one ever truly bought into using them, ranging from solicitors to buyers to sellers to agents. There will be no tears shed here about their demise”

For an insider view on the current state of the property market take a look at this five minute interview with David Pollock, Managing Director of Greene & Co and Urban Spaces. David talks about both Greene & Co and Urban Spaces, market changes, the use of portals and what makes Greene & Co different from other agencies.

Click here to view this interview

After months of careful planning and a bit of good old elbow grease, we can announce the launch of our shiny, sparkly new website…isn’t it great? But that’s not all – we’ve also introduced a slick and efficient new property management system.

The new system, with a little bit of time and practice, should revolutionise the way we work. It’s faster; it’s more efficient with really great functions to improve on organisation and communication. It even makes the tea…well, I can dream!

Ultimately are aim is to improve the service we offer to you. At Urban Spaces we really care about our customers and that’s why we’ve invested a few quid to improve our service.

But, just for now we ask that you have a little patience whilst we get our heads round it all. There’s bound to be a few teething problems to begin with….but I promise in the long run we’re going to be cooking on gas!

If your service is affected in anyway, please give us a call on 020 7490 001 or email the marketing department and we’ll help.

We’ve just launched our brand new Urban Spaces website. I, for one am very excited! Take a look around and see what you think…I’d love your feedback. And watch this space for some more blogs!