Move over Selling Sunset, the Netflix series featuring ultra-glamorous Beverly Hills real estate agents, there’s a new real estate porn series in town.
Buying London, which debuts on the streaming service on May 22, focuses on the stunning real estate in the capital’s ‘super privileged’ neighborhoods: Belgravia, Chelsea, Kensington, Hampstead, St John’s Wood, Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Notting Hill.
But as Buying London’s motto is “big properties, bigger personalities”, the other stars of the show are the ultra-glamorous staff at luxury estate agency DDRE Global and, in particular, its founder and boss Daniel Daggers.
His more than 65,000 Instagram followers know him as Mr Super Prime, but with some justification: the average property on his books is valued at £10.9 million.
Daggers, 44, who grew up in social housing and started selling studio flats in 1998, has created a global agency thanks to the social media platform.
Ultra-glamorous: ‘Mr Super Prime’ Daniel Daggers, centre, photographed with his high-flying real estate agents at DDRE Globa
It is a strategy that has disrupted the functioning of the prime real estate sector. A beautifully crafted video, with witty repartee of an expensively dressed celebrity agent, is now essential for promoting an expensive house or apartment in the city or country.
Using social media has enabled Daggers to secure £5bn worth of deals since he designed the grand DDRE design on his kitchen table during lockdown.
DDRE’s deals include the sale of a £95 million white stucco-fronted house in Carlton Gardens, near Buckingham Palace, to American billionaire Ken Griffin, chief executive of hedge fund Citadel.
Daggers predicts that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial reforms to non-dom tax systems will alter the nature of demand for such trophy mansions, and also for substantial townhouses and detached homes at prime addresses.
From April 2025, foreigners who come to live in the UK will only escape tax on their overseas income for four years.
The appeal of London will not be diminished: the architecture and culture of our capital have a unique power of attraction. But the rich who come to settle here will be those who plan to stay longer and put down roots in an area that has heritage, but also facilities.
“In London at its best, family-oriented neighborhoods are going to outperform the rest of the market over the next year,” says Daggers. In particular, she says there will be demand for homes with outdoor space “in locations with great amenities and world-class schools.”
In the first quarter of this year, DDRE was involved in the sale of £55 million worth of properties in the UK. About 60 percent of all homes sold by the agency are “off-market” sales. The average price in this category is £23 million.
These transactions are discreet, with property details initially shared only with those deemed able to afford these top-notch digs.
Although the handsome Daggers is always impeccably dressed in a suit and boots, or wears expensive sportswear, he is diametrically opposed to the archetypal upper-class estate agent, being more Estuary than Etonian.
Nor does he indulge in false humility. He thinks James Bond star Daniel Craig should play him in his life story, and he only seems half-serious about it.
In the world of luxury property, Daggers’ hugely successful exploitation of social media is seen as ironic, given that posting photos of a house on Instagram was said to be the reason for his 2019 departure from the agency Knight Frank. The post is said to have been considered an invasion of customer privacy.
But Daggers seems to have never looked back.
In his Instagram posts and videos, he can be seen standing in front of immaculate properties or walking through their interiors, pointing out key architectural and decorative features.
He can also be seen behind the wheel of his various expensive cars, complaining about parking fines, reading an article about him in this month’s edition of Tatler magazine or celebrating a sale at an exclusive bar.
He also talks about his love for his parents and the Arsenal football club. Before the first real estate league arrived, Daggers spent a season as a player for Hayes Town FC.
Netflix tells us that “in a luxury real estate agency, the only thing more attractive than super prime properties is the hot office drama.”
DDRE agents are depicted in tense situations, but never poorly dressed or amidst mediocre decor.
The heels are high, the hairdryer is perfect and the houses, hotels and restaurants they frequent are impeccably decorated and furnished.
Nothing could be further from the lifestyle of the majority of Londoners or the houses or flats they live in. But Buying London is bursting onto our screens against a backdrop of greater optimism in the city’s property market.
The return to work and the lure of bright lights are pushing back house hunters, as the latest data from Rightmove and estate agency Hamptons highlights.
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