As the Bill's PC Will Fletcher, he fights crime in Sun Hill. But Gary Lucy's other role is running an international estate agency. Johnny Turner meets up with the actor/businessman
Gary Lucy has learnt a trick that most in the world of entertainment never master: he has retained his normal-ness yet is thoroughly engaging, even charismatic. On a chilly pre-Christmas night at a West End restaurant (not the Ivy) he exhibits no sign of star airs, listens as well as talks and shrugs at showbiz gossip, preferring to talk about more ‘real’ things. He has just finished a 12-hour filming day but is animated and interested as we talk about everything from favourite episodes of Friends to his young family, acting and property.
One thing occupying him is the condition I call School Catchment Area Relocation Yearning (SCARY). With their daughter India Jasmine now two-and-a-half, Gary and his partner Natasha have begun to think about primaries. In his area, he says, the difference between a good school and a less good school is ‘a matter of a few streets.’ This led them to consider a previously owned property that needed a lot of work but they didn’t go through with it in the end. ‘After going through the figures, the margins were too small – no room for error.’ He and Natasha are ‘still looking’, he says. ‘Maybe a little further into the country …’
He is no stranger to the buy-to-let business, having built up a portfolio of new build properties in Greater London: he owns property in Chigwell (his home), Islington, Camden and Wanstead – and has now bought abroad, which proved to be the start of a whole new journey.
His purchase of a property in Santa Ponca, Mallorca not only took him international in terms of ownership – it also led him to set up his own business, Gary Lucy Real Estate. If the old Victor Kiam model of entrepreneurial inspiration has the person liking a product so much he buys the company, there is a parallel voyage of discovery, which was Gary’s experience with his Mallorcan purchase: he hated the product so much he started his own business.
‘My friend and I each bought a place there and we had such bad service.’ He sketches out a scenario of some very un-businesslike practices, in which the buyer is bamboozled and a strange, labyrinthine system of kickbacks and favours operates. The buyer was ill-served by this way of working, and with a glimpse of this Gary had an idea: ‘We thought, why don’t we do it. I’ll put my name to it. The majority of the properties are with one agent. We took on a Mallorca-based agent owned by Mallorcans and said, “You’ve got a pool of properties. We’ll get the English market in and we can work on a commission split.”’
The website now features properties in Europe’s ‘big four’ and is set to expand further. The original focus was on Mallorca, and the site’s success in that market led to an expansion into mainland Spain, as well as Portugal, France and Italy. ‘We wanted to get it working with Mallorca – and it worked very quickly. We’ve got it all set up.’
The Spanish market has hit some bumps in the past year. Has he seen evidence of this? ‘When speaking with agents over there I get the impression there is a slight saturation of re-sale properties in southern Spain – Marbella etc. In my opinion, if you are looking for a property to rent out or spin on to make a quick buck, this may not be the place to invest. If, however, you are looking for a holiday home, now could be a good time to pick up a great deal.’
Property is practically an obsession of his, an offshoot of his love of travel. Italy is a current interest – ‘I’ve seen Venice and Verona’ – and he would like to go there again soon; Australia is another destination he wants to make time to experience. But it is difficult to see how he how he will get there soon, with his packed shooting schedule and his time-consuming work with his property business.
But you can go a long way on enthusiasm, and this he has in spades. He started acting as a teenager, appearing in Grange Hill and Dream Team before landing the high-profile role of Luke in Hollyoaks. It was at this time that a fellow soap actor advised him to put his earnings into property. While building his acting career in the wonderfully ridiculous Footballers’ Wives and in his current stint as PC Will Fletcher on The Bill, he continued to invest in bricks and mortar.
The switch from buy-to-let landlord to proprietor of a property sales business must be quite a shift in gears, though – and now that he’s a father as well, where does he get the time? ‘I’m full-time with The Bill. That’s my main job. But we have a team working with us [at GLRE].’ This may be his moonlighting gig, and he may have support, but he can’t help getting involved in all decisions to do with it. ‘I need to learn to let go – that’s my problem. But I really enjoy it.’
Gary Lucy Real Estate currently has over 10,500 properties on its site, with France and Spain the most well represented. Even more far-flung markets are on the cards. ‘We are currently building relationships with agents and developers in Dubai, Poland and Croatia, so more will follow! We are concentrating on spreading the price range as much as possible to give more options to our clients.’ Vendors can also use the site’s Client Centre to increase their exposure to would-be buyers.
‘We give choice, good service – and that’s it, really. I want to have a one-stop shop, where you’ve got a removals team, landscapers. It will all be on there.’ He checks his phone again. Then he’s off to meet a friend at The Ivy.
Visit garylucyrealestate.com