Our tenth anniversary provides a fitting moment to reflect on past achievements and future plans
Most businesses can trace their history back to modest beginnings. Morrisons began as a market stall, Microsoft operated out of a garage and McDonalds consisted of a single burger shack. It takes hard work, creativity and professionalism to build a new business up from scratch – something the two co-founders of Cloud Estates are currently reflecting on as their boutique estate agency celebrates its tenth anniversary.
Location, location, location
When lifelong friends James Skoyles and Jordan Bowe started trading out of a small office in Kingston Park, they had ambitious plans to grow their fledgling estate agency business. Moving to the more high-profile setting of Jesmond in 2014 turbocharged Cloud Estates’ growth, with a further relocation to Heaton in late 2021 giving the brand a double-fronted high street shop with excellent visibility and accessibility.
As well as upgrading premises during the last ten years, Cloud Estates has also expanded its team. There are now eight full-time staff including a sales negotiator with more than 20 years’ experience, and two in-house maintenance operative who helps us to manage almost 150 properties across Newcastle and Gateshead. The decision to become HMO management specialists proved particularly shrewd, with little competition in this sector. Cloud Estates has subsequently engaged with a series of innovative developers to manage some of the best high-specification HMO properties across north east England.
Tenant’s extra
While some boutique agencies focus mainly on residential property sellers, or concentrate on attracting affluent buyers, Cloud Estates has quietly built trusted relationships with tenants. The type of property tenure is far less important than nurturing strong connections with owners, landlords and tenants alike, particularly as councils up and down the UK are declaring housing emergencies. Many Cloud Estates tenants have been signed up with us since the last decade, generating consistently positive feedback which is also enthusiastically provided by buyers and vendors.
The desire to deliver quality housing for all was behind another corporate innovation – offering full property renovations as an additional service via our sister company Cloud Renovations Ltd. To date, approximately 10 large-scale renovation projects have been completed, and many more are in the pipeline, from bathroom refurbishments to full-house renovations and extensions. It’s a further acknowledgement that clients have widely differing expectations; the one-size-fits-all services offered by some companies won’t always match specific requirements.
Sailing into calmer waters
The last ten years has been among the most turbulent in the housing market’s history. Brexit, a global pandemic and war in Europe have each impacted everything from inflation to cost-of-living pressures, while migration levels and minimal housebuilding have heaped further pressure onto an already overheated property market. We’re approaching the fourth general election in nine years, and it’s impossible to predict which manifesto promises will be honoured in terms of housing. As a result, it’s more important than ever to be able to rely on seasoned property professionals who understand the Newcastle market – especially when it bucks regional or national trends.
With ambitious plans to expand the sales department that first opened in 2021, James acknowledges the many people, clients, contractors and employees who have contributed to Cloud Estates’ various successes over the last decade: “We wouldn't be where we are today without your continued support. We're so grateful for the growth our business has seen in recent years, especially since moving to Heaton, and we put much of this growth down to the fantastic team we’ve built around us. We are very excited about what the future holds…”
