Netflix swaps Hollywood for Hampstead with 'Buying London' series
'Buying London' star Daniel Daggers discusses the appeal of looking at most luxury homes
London: Netflix Inc. has swapped the Hollywood Hills for the manicured squares of Mayfair in its new real estate show ‘Buying London’, the UK's answer to the popular 'Selling Sunset' reality program.
The stars of the show are Daniel Daggers and his agents at DDRE Global. Daggers has sold more than $5.5 billion of real estate to some of the world's wealthiest people, including a Pound95 million ($120 million) mansion to hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.
Much like 'Selling Sunset', the show features tours inside multimillion-pound mansions set against reality-TV drama between DDRE's glamorous agents. On the show, West London local Rosi Walden (who had a stint on reality show Made in Chelsea), top agent Lauren Christy and newcomer Reme Nicole all compete for blockbuster listings that bring in big commissions. There are also appearances from some of Daggers' leading contacts, like billionaire 1 Mayfair developer John Caudwell.
'Buying London', which begins streaming on Wednesday, debuts during a slowdown in London's super-prime property market. Wealthy home sellers are cutting prices by as much as 30 per cent to secure deals during a slump that's gripped the high-end neighborhoods depicted on the Netflix show.
But Daggers seems undeterred. In many ways the 44-year-old real estate entrepreneur is a natural fit for reality-TV stardom. On Instagram he's known to his 65,000 followers as Mr. Super Prime"-in London, "super prime" refers to properties valued at Pound10 million and above. Daggers was one of the first British agents to adopt social media as a sales and branding tool, a technique that's been common in the US for years.
"I lived in a local housing authority until I was 11, and have been an agent since I was 17 and started out with studio flats," says Daggers, speaking to Bloomberg from his offices near Regents Park in central London. "And now I sell some of the most expensive real estate on the planet, and do so unbelievably frequently, it's not a fluke."
He spent 12 years at leading agency Knight Frank and parted ways with the firm after allegedly posting images of a client's home on Instagram without permission, according to press reports. Daggers says he can't give any clarity on his departure from the firm. "Let's just say that there are two sides to every story and sometimes life isn't fair," he says.
After leaving Knight Frank, he founded DDRE in 2020, and in the four years since, DDRE has sold Pound600 million of real estate, most of it in the UK. His business has also included a content creation arm"-think made-for-TikTok sizzle reels of well-dressed agents giving tours of mansions"-that's featured on the show. The goal? Boosting his agents' profiles and getting properties seen by the right buyers.
When asked if he had any nerves about starring in a reality show, he said "Of course," but a big reason he signed his Netflix contract was for the increased exposure. "It's an amazing opportunity to display your talent in front of hundreds of millions of people and let them have an opportunity to choose whether or not they want to do business with you," he says.
That exposure has paid off for the Kretz family, stars of Netflix's 'The Parisian Agency', who say they've seen increased inquiries internationally since doing the show. Daggers was a featured guest on that program. In his appearance, he visited one of the Kretz listings, a 32,000-square-foot castle in France, as the family worked to impress him in order to form a partnership on super-prime properties. Daggers says being on the episode helped him understand the Netflix platform a little more.
"That show created a lot of opportunities for them"-and us," he says.
Market slowdown
Still, it's a complicated time to display some of London's most exclusive real estate on the global stage. In January, prime central London properties sold below 90 per cent of their asking price for the first time since early 2019, according to data from LonRes. The spring, traditionally a very busy time for the prime London market, has been "a little lackluster," according to recent Knight Frank analysis.
"We are in a place now where buyers are unsure as to whether they want to buy, and sellers don't believe they are going to get the price that they are looking for, so that does create quite a slow market," says Daggers. "If you've been unrealistic with your pricing, you're not going to achieve it in this current market."
On the flip side, he says the conditions now may be ideal for buyers"-some of whom may be watching the property tours on the show. "When the market's hot, people are piling in, but it's often not the best opportunity to buy real estate. But now might be," he says.
Either way, Daggers expects viewers will enjoy getting an inside look into the upper echelons of London's real estate world. "I suspect my life will change quite a bit when the show comes out," he adds. "Everyone wants to look at beautiful homes."