Kenneth Alting: 'It has to be exceptional and not reproducible'
- maandag 18 oktober 2021
- 12:06
- By: Mical Joseph
Honders/Alting Makelaars specializes in the sale and purchase of exclusive homes at home and abroad. Founder-owner and born Zeeuw Kenneth Alting tells MASTERS about his love for his company, real estate, Oisterwijk in Brabant and his plans for the future: Bart-Jan Brouwer
Online editors: Mical Joseph
Image: John van HelvertHighersegment | "I am from Zeeland and came to live in Oisterwijk for love in 2000. That same year I joined this firm, initially as a salaried employee. It could just as well have been any other place in Brabant, but I am oh so glad it became Oisterwijk. Because anyone who knows Oisterwijk will agree that it is one of the nicest villages in Brabant. In 2004 I had the opportunity to become a shareholder and co-owner of our firm. At that time we were an all-round real estate agency - we tackled everything. In 2005, 2006 we started thinking about the future of brokerage. Funda was getting stronger and there were more and more technologies that made access to the housing market more accessible. The offer was easier to find, more colleagues joined, margins came under pressure. We asked ourselves the question: what should we do to make a difference? We thought we were doing the right thing by focusing on the top end of the market. In that segment we already had a considerable market share and our location was conducive. In 2008 we fully committed to that upper segment. And then the lights went out... The timing couldn't have been worse. Many colleagues thought we were crazy: surely no one is ever going to buy a house worth more than a million? We always kept the faith. A house is not a perishable commodity, it has to be sold once. Even if it's for less money."
Highlight | "It was an exciting time. We were forced to look critically at our operations and become innovative again. We were one of the first to focus very much on social media and to value styling and good real estate photography. After all: you only make a first impression once. In addition, we were quite progressive in creating video clips around a property. Exclusive homes require an exclusive approach. The highlight was the film we made in 2016, 2017 for De Wielewaal estate, which was inhabited from 1934 to 2005 by the late Frits Philips. That movie went viral worldwide. We were trending on YouTube for two weeks, made every news item on television, newspaper and radio, were even approached by The New York Times and The Moscow Times. Suddenly Honders/Alting was well known. At 45 million, De Wielewaal is the most expensive project for sale in the Netherlands. The estate is in the middle of the city, so for the municipality it must be worth quite a bit to do something with it. One example: at Eindhoven Airport, no more landings or takeoffs are allowed after 11 p.m., Frits Philips once stipulated. If the airport wants more flying hours, this restriction must be removed, and that is only possible if you own the estate. The municipality would be a fantastic party to develop that. Even if you were to use only 50 of the 150 acres for residential development, you could build a thousand homes in no time. And that still leaves 100 acres of parkland. A park that is not accessible now, but which could then benefit the whole community."
Location | "The exceptional housing market, with prices starting at 3.5 million, is currently going extremely well. In the first half of 2021, we did about 20 transactions in that segment, whereas about five years ago it was five or six on an annual basis. We notice that the trend is exclusive: it has to be exceptional and non-reproducible. The superlative of superlatives. The biggest, the safest, the most expensive ... THAT. And I don't rule out that people in this segment don't buy a home of this caliber exclusively for themselves. They also want to show off their success a bit. And don't we all do that? Whether it's your house, your car or your clothes: look what I have! When buying a house, location is terribly important; you don't want to live on the "wrong" side of the tracks. In every town and in every village you have that. We try to touch on that: what is really your dream? And then let's go looking to see if we can fulfill it. Pure customization."
Next step | "We are currently working on the next step: creating partnerships and making Honders/Alting more of a platform for exclusive offerings in the Netherlands but also beyond. For example, we have many collaborations in Belgium, Switzerland and Curaçao. Honders/Alting wants to be the spider in the web, the label you go to if you are looking for or have special homes to offer. Point on the horizon? Our ambition is to strengthen our position in the south of the country even more as the player for the upper end of the market. That's where our strength lies, that's where we have the best contacts. We are now growing fast in Eindhoven, for example, partly through the sale of a fantastic new construction project with international allure. We now also have offices in The Hague, Utrecht, Den Bosch and Eindhoven. If you live in Utrecht and want to move south, you don't have to go to Oisterwijk but go to our office there. I would like to give those offices more body in the next five years."
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