Kate Faulkner - Property Market Analyst & Commentator
About Kate Faulkner
Kate spends half her time working as a consultant in the property industry, and the other half of her time is split between helping people carry out property projects and working with property companies to increase their business.
Kate works right across the property residential sector and helps first time buyers, renters, people choosing their final home, young families renovating a home through to people wanting to make millions as a property investor. Kate does this via company consulting projects and speaking live to both industry and consumer audiences of up to 200 people. She also writes daily on property for her website: www.designsonproperty.co.uk
Kate has written six books on property, including four for Which? and produces specialist ‘property packs’, such as the First Time Buyer pack, a 75 page booklet which includes checklists, questions to ask, factsheets on how to find an area and property type to live in, how to compare properties, as well as making offers and securing finance.
Kate is well respected within the property industry and uses her business sales and marketing background as well as her vast property knowledge to judge key industry competitions throughout the year including Landlord and Buy to Let, Estate Agency and First Time Buyer Awards. Kate is also on the Lettings Academy panel of UK leading experts. Kate has a unique ability to see things from the consumer's and a business's perspective and takes time to judge awards as she appreciates the importance and potential additional business that they can create.
Business and Property Background 1989-1999
For the first 10 years of her career, she was working in the FMCG business with Blue Chip companies such as Unilever, Sainsbury’s and Kraft Jacob Suchard. These taught her valuable skills for property as her various sales and marketing roles required excellent business strategy knowledge and negotiating expertise.
Property Experience 1989 to Current
While working full time, Kate built up a personal expertise in property as a consumer. She rented, bought, renovated and sold property during the last recession up to the present day. Kate's first property was bought in the last recession with a friend, as she couldn’t afford to buy by herself. She carefully researched properties and prices as her brother and sister had gone into negative equity and she didn’t want this to happen to her!
Kate's traded up, traded down, lived in many different places from Central London, the Home Counties and now has a base in Reading as well as her main ‘dream’ home in a village near Newark, Nottinghamshire.
Having moved so much, in good and bad markets, Kate has built up a real expertise and knack of knowing:-
1. What properties to buy (flat, 2 bed terrace, old, new, 1930s etc)
2. Analysing areas so she knows where to buy
3. How to make money
4. Mistakes to avoid
5. Great industry contacts across the UK
As Kate loved property so much she took a career break, did a full time MBA for a year, which specialised in Entrepreneurship, so she could work out how and what to do to move into the property market. While doing her MBA, she also did up a flat (and made money!).
Since 1999 Kate's built up a unique skill set in the property industry as a consultant helping to expand property companies. This includes: buying and selling and related services (surveying/legals/removals); corporate relocation; self build and renovation; part exchange and new build; property investment and lettings. As such Kate's been involved in thousands of different people’s property projects and created solutions/new products to help them carry out their projects successfully.
Kate also started to produce area analysis for property investors, which cover the social and economic history of an area and match demographic trends to the need for housing in a local area, thus highlighting areas and property types which are in short supply and are likely to grow in value.
Media Experience
Here is a link to Kate's showreel on YouTube and here are links to the full videos summarised:-
Other media experience includes: Radio 4 You and Yours, 5 Live and BBC1’s The Big Questions, BBC Radio Nottingham, as well as live news stories, such as on ITV. Kate is regularly featured in the Telegraph, Daily Mail, Express and trade journals.
Kate can be contacted on 0845 838 1763 or enquiries@designsonproperty.co.uk
