Neighbourhoods are like brands
Why do some neighbourhoods suddenly take off? How do you spot the next Ponsonby or Grey Lynn before everyone else?
Neighbourhoods are like brands. Their very names bestow upon their residents a certain image or set of characteristics. Some have always been revered for their cachet. Remuera, Parnell, and Herne Bay are the Hermes and Gieves and Hawkes of Auckland real estate; long established, high quality, reassuringly expensive, but, perhaps, already in their prime.
One thing is for sure, you don’t get many underpriced Hermes scarves or Saville Row suits. Finding a bargain in these suburbs is like looking for a $2 Dollar Shop on Rodeo Drive or bargain hunting on Bond Street, “Let’s just pop into Fendi and see if they’ve got a sale on.”
So, how do you spot the real estate equivalent of a Louis Vuitton in the making, preferably when they are just a tinpot handbag maker on the dodgy side of town?
Well, the really cool, up-and-coming brands usually start out somewhat edgy. Nike, Guess Jeans and Vodafone rattled some establishment marketing cages before making it big. So too, Ponsonby and Grey Lynn were written off as no-hope, blue-collar ghettos before the smart money started moving in.
Of course, identifying the smart money from the dumb money is the hard part. Prada versus Pokemon.
It seems to me there are two distinct groups of people when it comes to successful brands, or neighbourhoods for that matter. They are the opinion formers and the opinion followers.
Opinion formers, and their migratory habits, are the keys to spotting the next big thing.
If we look at a couple of suburbs that have shown significant gentrification (and capital growth) in recent years, say, Ponsonby, Grey Lynn and Kingsland, what can we learn from the people that have moved there?
Well, is it just me, or do these suburbs seem to have more than their fair share of arty, creative types? Art directors, copywriters, photographers, PR people, etc. So, what do they have in common? Well, surprise, surprise, they are brand experts; they make brands popular for a living. It’s their business to mould people’s opinions and make products desirable. And they can’t help doing the same with their neighbourhoods.
Of course they’ll vehemently deny that they deliberately set out to colonise neighbourhoods and make them chic and attractive to the opinion following masses. But they just can’t help themselves. Look at any major metropolis in the world and you’ll see how down-at-heel neighbourhoods have become sought after real estate enclaves once these bourgeois bohemians have taken root. Greenwich Village in Manhattan and Soho in London to name just two.
Even before the media types take up residence, these areas are often populated by struggling artists, attracted by the low rents. To the creative and media opinion formers that’s an added bonus – artistic credibility combined with real estate El Dorado. Make way for the Comme des Garcons suits.
And once the brand experts have moved in you will mysteriously start noticing references in the newspapers and magazines to “So and So spotted at exclusive Kingsland eatery”, or “Tycoon moves to uber-trendy Grey Lynn”. TV commercials for luxury cars will suddenly acquire Ponsonby Road backdrops. The neighbourhood branding transformation has begun.
The next brands you can expect to see attracted to the area are Barfoot & Thompson and Bayleys.
So, if you really want to learn which areas are about to sky-rocket, spend some time eavesdropping in Cibo or SPQR. That’s my excuse for being a barfly anyway.
