​​​​George Marcou

The large numbers of people actively considering purchasing property in Cyprus as an alternative and even a superior choice to Spain convinced me that there was a viable market.  The developers that I met at various trade shows and industry events seemed very professional with a high regard for quality.

The extensive research that I conducted to present the case for Atlas International to expand into this market, combined with my knowledge of Cyprus and experience gained through my time at Atlas convinced me that I was capable of exploiting this opportunity myself.

I was able to implement all of the ideas that I had wanted to try at Atlas and hit the ground running with a set of processes that had already been thoroughly proven.

We targeted developers and developments that met our very strict criteria and took on properties across Southern Cyprus to represent the best that that the island had to offer a property buyer.

The initial negotiations with developers, creation of collateral and establishment of offices lasted 2 months, during which I acquired a local partner, opened a local office in Cyprus, created a full set of literature, brochures, leaflets, etc and got our first website online.

Our proposition to developers was simple.  we wanted a 10% commission rather than the standard 3% and in return, we would undertake all marketing, sales and customer service duties in the UK, including advertising, attendance at trade shows and exhibitions and undertake liaison from our local office in Cyprus to deliver progress reports and other updates to our customers.

This would save the developers a small fortune in customer acquisition costs, which we calculated with them to seal our agreement.

No one turned us down.  In fact word of our approach spread and we started to have developers seeking us out, willing to offer us  higher commissions than we asked for, if we would represent them.

This business was another exercise in customer advocacy, where we would not expose our prospective customers to products or services that did not meet our standards 

From the UK, my team and I would execute the marketing and follow up on all the leads generated.  We would then look after customer service and all customer contact.

The team in Cyprus would look after customers while they viewed properties and liaise with the developers until completion.

Between the 2 offices, our customers received the best customer service that could possibly be delivered.

As a consequence, our conversion rates were high, but our referral ratio averaged 3:1.  That is 3 sales as a result of customer referrals for every sales generated through any form of advertising or marketing. 

From one sale, we soon had another 5 members of the same extended family completing sales with us. 

Due to the amount of work that we put in throughout the sales cycle, developers came to prefer us to manage the customer service process.

After a year, we secured First Choice Holidays as a promotional partner.  

Every holiday maker that flew into Cyprus would be asked whether they were intending to search for property.  With so many people flying to Cyprus for this exact purpose, they chose us as a partner to look after their customers and would refer anyone who expressed an interest, to us and would even make appointments on our behalf. 

After 2 years of very successful operation, our promotional activities were providing us with a steady flow of clients and sales and I had moved to Cyprus to be closer to the sales and delivery side of the business.

There were now 4 partners in the business which added to our ability to manage our growing operation, but also created other complications.

I had entered to market at the right time and beleived that, at this point, it was close to it's peak.  My only surprise was that it had happened very quickly.  We had made amazing progress and developed a reputation for being trusted experts in our industry, among clients, developers and industry commentators.

From this perspective, I could see trouble ahead for the industry and could see the changes to the market approaching on the horizon.

The property sales industry in Cyprus had no real regulation and too many cowboys had been allowed to trade both as developers and sales agents.  The controls for both existed on paper, but were rarely enforced.  I felt lucky to have bee able to trade for a long as we had without being too affected by this, but the volume of unregulated players was growing rapidly.

Out of just over 450 real estate agents in Paphos in 2002, only 40 (including Best of Cyprus) were licensed, and therefore regulated.

Developers were suddenly springing up all over.  Farmers suddenly wanted to build villas. Anyone with a parcel of land wanted to throw up an apartment block.  For the most part, the build quality remained very high, but the guarantees were harder to secure.

Two years of working 7 days a week without a weekend to relax on top of the 3 and a half years at Atlas meant that I desperately needed a break.  While there was work to be done, I carried on.

One of our contacts had been anxious to acquire a share of the company for over 6 months, but the 4 of us resisted, as we didn't see the need for external investment or the additional resources that were offered.

I was starting to get homesick for London and saw this as a chance to get the full value of my investment while it was still at it's peak.  We had the company independently valued (luckily for me, by the same professionals who valued many businesses in Cyprus prior to the stock market launch) and sold my full stake.