This week’s exclusive interview looks at one of the best-known brands at the high end of the new homes market in the Home Counties – Octagon – and asks the questions to its sales director Angus McQuhae.
Hi Angus, please tell us a little about yourself and Octagon.
Octagon has been going for almost 37 years, and has, in that time, developed quite the reputation for building very high-quality, luxury homes. We’re based in Hampton Court, with offices backing straight onto the River Thames, and have always had a strong focus on the Home Counties and south-west London areas.
I joined the Octagon team in 1999 as a land buyer, and assumed the role as a full board director in 2007, in charge of land acquisitions and sales.
The high end of the market has found the last couple of years challenging, due to stamp duty changes and some political decisions. How have you dealt with these things?
Undoubtedly the changes in stamp duty over the past year or so have affected the upper end of the property market, which is where we have historically focused the majority of our homes and projects. But we’re always adapting, and some clients have found commercial advantage in using the Bespoke service to acquire plots, upon which we provide a design-and-build service for them.
We’ve also broadened the product range to include lower price brackets, where the stamp duty changes have a much less adverse effect.
What properties are you currently offering, and is there one you consider your favourite?
We’ve just launched two brand new homes on Weybridge Park – Ashridge House and Linley House – and the next to finish will be Brockstone on the Kingswood Estate. We have a sizable home being built on Titlarks Hill, Sunningdale, and will have two mid-priced properties completing in the Esher and Cobham areas in the next few months too.
On top of that, we’re starting to build of a row of six townhouses on the riverfront in Fulham, and an exciting refurbishment project overlooking the common in Wimbledon Village.
Of course I have preferred properties, but each and every one does become my favourite at some point – as soon as it’s sold!
What's Octagon's approach to the next year or so, in terms of the type of properties you'll be bringing to buyers?
For the next few years, Octagon will continue to operate in the area we’re widely recognised for – luxury house building. We are however broadening our breadth, and creating a wider range of aspirational homes in a more accessible price range. Our big new site Broadoaks, in West Byfleet, where construction starts later this year, will be delivering homes for a wide range of purchasers with starting from around £500,000 – this means people who have always dreamed of owning one of our homes, but thought prices were out of reach, will soon find this is possible, and needless to say local interest is already rather healthy.
Is there such a thing as a 'typical' Octagon customer, or do you see a wide variety of backgrounds interested in your homes?
We have a very diverse customer base, from international buyers to homegrown, local families, but they all have the fact they want prime location, great schooling and high-quality homes in common. However, the growth in our Bespoke division means we’re seeing more and more different customers, wanting their Octagon home in a wider variety of locations, and we’ve seen a lot more interest coming from the Essex and Kent areas.
Have demands for specification in these top-end properties changed much over the last few years?
We pride ourselves on maintaining consistent standards of high specification, though of course as times change, new materials and technology becomes available. Keeping up with all the technical advancements coming onto the market is crucial, and many of our clients, particularly those commissioning an Octagon Bespoke home, are involved from the beginning of the housebuilding process, which is exciting for both our designers and the more adventurous purchasers.
We have our standard specification, which for most properties includes an environmentally friendly, sustainable energy source for underfloor heating and domestic water supply. Audio and telephone core cabling is installed in all principal rooms, and a management system to control lighting, heating and cooling can be actioned from touch screens or mobile devices. Beyond that, a client can add as few or many ‘toys’ as they’d like.
Do your buyers expect a fully interior-designed and furnished home and how do you dress the homes to the level of expectations required?
As part of the sales process, we tend to furnish around nine out of ten of our homes, and it helps buyers to see how the space can be used. We source furniture from a wide range of well recognised and renowned designers, and often commission bespoke pieces, as, with such large rooms, standard furniture can sometimes look a bit lost! With the pieces we buy in, customers have the option to purchase as much or as little of the furniture as they’d like – we’ve had some clients buy absolutely everything, down to the knives, forks and wine glasses.
Are you relying on traditional favourite locations in and beyond 2017 or are you looking for sites elsewhere?
Beyond 2017, we’ll continue to look for plots in some of our favourite locations – but we’re continually being invited to build in new places by our Bespoke customer base.