The Corkman at Galliards Helm

For a self-confessed avid follower of politics in these islands and across the Atlantic, the office of Donagh O’Sullivan, CEO of Galliard Homes, has an apt setting, on the edge of Westminster in the heart of London and just around the corner from the home of Channel 4 television. The 50-year-old Corkman, who grew up in Cullen, near Millstreet, was one of seven sons of parents who owned a petrol station and bus- hire company in the village.

A graduate of UCC, he has lived in the English capital for 28 years and now runs what is the second largest residential developer in the city, with FTSE-listed Berkeley Group ranking number one.

With a staff of 650 and employing up to 8,000 indirectly at any one time, Galliard is majority owned by British businessman Stephen Conway and his family, with senior management, including O’Sullivan, sharing a stake.

It has £3.8bn (€4.3bn) of developments under way - typically including up to a dozen 20 to 40-storey towers at any one time - and is the 17th largest home builder in the UK, but the ninth most profitable, so it punches above its weight.

It’s a long way from when he joined the firm as a contracts manager in 2001, when it had only 25 employees, building 75 homes.

Mostly focused on London and England’s south-east today, it also has projects under way in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Bristol, Exeter, Cornwall and Bath. Its bread and butter is apartment blocks aimed at investors - many of whom buy off-plan - and first time buyers. Some developments are mixed use, with a bit of commercial space.

The firm is planning to do more on a build-to-rent basis, where the firm will retain ownership and have a rental income, he said. There are also two hotels at London landmarks under way. One is a serviced apartment style property at Tower Bridge. The second sees Galliard building

and owning the property, while hotel group Hyatt operates the five-star Great Scotland Yard at the original home of the Metropolitan Police in Whitehall, whose moniker was ‘The Yard.’

The model isn’t unusual. Galliard works with a lot of joint venture partners. The firm usually takes between a 20pc and 40pc stake - the latter being the average - in each of its developments. “Our partners are a diverse group; from individual wealthy people, landowners, funds, banks and other developers. We’re very flexible, and the growth of the business has been driven by this way of working,” said O’Sullivan. “Investors who make money in the time that their apartment takes to build - usually two to two-and-a-half years - will often return to buy from us again.”

Several construction partners are Irishowned, including Toureen, Modebest, JRL Group and the largest, O’Shea, with which Galliard frequently partners, and which has over £1.75bn of developments under way in London.

Earlier this month, O’Shea and Galliard announced they’d bought a €25m site at Nine Elms Park, nestled between the new US Embassy and Battersea Power Station, where they will build a block of 262 apartments.

“We have traditionally been very successful at off-plan sales. Of our current book of £3.8bn, we have forward sold about 75pc of that, and it might take threeand-a-half years to build it all out. We like to buy sites where we have something to contribute and are very much about creating primarily homes where people will enjoy living and will want to live.

“We do everything, from land acquisition, to the planning, sales and marketing, construction, after-care, and property or estate management all inhouse,” O’Sullivan added.

“Traditionally we’ve been very good at helping to regenerate parts of London. With 33 boroughs and 8.65 million people, 75pc of what we build is there, and there are always opportunities somewhere in the life cycle of communities. Britain has a target of building 300,000 homes a year, but to date has only achieved 210,000 at best.”

A new Galliard division, Evolve, has four sites in the London commuter belt, where effectively a twist on coworking spaces will be developed. It would see start-ups and small businesses operating in 700 sq ft units - the size of a small terraced house or two-bedroom apartment. All covered by fast 1Gb broadband, communal facilities are housed in a barn conversion-like building featuring showers, a gym, meeting and kitchen spaces. “

People are looking for a better quality of life, and it’s expensive to commute. These cater to a certain section of the market not being served, so we’re doing it.” The first site has 90 of the units and they start at £99,000 (€113,000.)”

Has Galliard ever looked at building in Ireland? “We looked in Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland before the crash. But each time I did, we didn’t go ahead.

“I couldn’t understand the basic maths, in terms of affordability for the people who’d need to buy the homes to make it a success. Land and development costs, and then what the selling prices needed to be: I couldn’t see how the market could sustain those three elements.

“I’m not claiming to be an expert in that I saw the potential for a crash. As we all know, the banks were exposed twice, lending to developers and then lending for mortgages. It was mad. We recruited some people from Ireland in the aftermath of the crash. My Dad sent some recruits our way who needed work as well.

Softly spoken, but with a discernible steely resolve never far from the surface, it’s not difficult to imagine the Corkman as a politician - an early childhood ambition was to be the US President, he laughed - although he insisted that he’s never had any political ambitions in adulthood. He believes that his personal confidence is better suited to answering to shareholders - who are more engaged with details and results than voters.