In Focus Interview: James Puddle, CEO & Founder, One Global Group

By Lucy Haydon, Editor, Orient Magazine

A leader in the residential property and investment sector for over 15 years, James founded the One Global Group in Singapore after identifying a gap in the market for a boutique real estate agency specialising in International project marketing.

Thanks for sharing your story with us today. Let’s start with some background – how did the company start, and what led you to Singapore?

Before moving out here in early 2017, my career was in the UK and London real estate market, where I worked for some of the bigger corporates. For a decade, my job involved travelling out to Asia and the Middle East to build a network of partners to sell our UK residential products. As I was travelling back and forth, I saw an opportunity. We were raising our children in the UK, and after Brexit, we decided to bite the bullet and move out here to set up One Global.

Whilst I was back and forth looking at exactly how I was going to do that, the Singapore real estate market was very regulated, so I needed to find the right person to partner up with who had the real estate license and experience. Through mutual connections, I was introduced to a partner who met those needs for the local market, and we spent time discussing and building trust in my vision. We wanted to create a business where we could sell UK real estate into Asian markets and use Singapore as a place to start from.

I quit my comfortable job in London, moved the family out here, and it’s been quite a journey. I came looking to build a team and brought in people I knew who were working for the big players, and who bought into the vision of doing something more boutique. We were looking to do something a bit different and have a bit more of a flexible structure, and that's what we've become known for. In the first 12 months, we became the go-to agency to sell UK residential developments into the Singapore market during what was quite a challenging time, and then it snowballed from there. We’ve since built a team of 20+ people in Singapore and under the group globally we now have over 50 staff.

What are your expansion plans?

Before the pandemic, we decided to open an office in Hong Kong and opened a small office in Malaysia, but then, of course, the pandemic became very challenging. Hong Kong started to take off around the middle of last year, and we’ve since doubled the size of the team. We’ve been able to expand into the Middle East and Africa and have more than doubled the size of the business since January last year.

How are your existing products and services adapted to consumers in this region? Do you see different kinds of interests at a country level?

There are nuances and differences, but the underlying theme is the same. We position ourselves as selling a UK product with that quality pedigree and undertake due diligence to ensure we provide consumers with excellent quality products. We have been strategic about our partners; for example, here in Singapore, we share an office with another company that provides ancillary services that complement our services. We do that in Hong Kong as well. This allows us to focus on our core business, with partnerships to help with the financing, mortgages and ancillary support. Having everything under one roof isn’t necessarily best for the customer if the expertise in each area isn’t there. This is why we’ve chosen to partner with experts for our business model, with each focusing on their core products.

We have a partnership in place with St. James’s Place Wealth Management, allowing us to expand further and create our One Global Expat service to specifically service expatriate property investment needs. It’s another point of differentiation for us that we have local teams that service local buyers, and an expat team to service expat requirements.

What would you say you have learned from your experiences over the last few years, which could be valuable advice to companies considering this market? What would you do differently?

The biggest thing is not to underestimate the value of trust and creating connections with the local network for talent and potential partnerships. Trusting in your people ultimately will work. That's undoubtedly what's enabled us to grow quite quickly; we've been fortunate in terms of the people that we've found and brought into the business.

In the past 18 months, when we couldn’t travel as much, we’ve focused our time on strengthening the foundations of the business, putting the different departments in place and aligning the company’s verticals. We have just rebranded from One Global Property Services to One Global Group.

Coming from a corporate background and now having my business, I enjoy the agility of making decisions quite quickly if we see an opportunity in the market.

Third.i's Graphite Square, located in Zone 1, London. Officially launched on February 26th 2022

What’s next for the company?

We’ll shortly be launching a commercial and auctions team in Singapore and growing the private office team. And then we're going to be setting up appropriate offices in London and elsewhere in the UK; it feels like the right time to do so after five years or so of business.

Now we've started to build the local business here in Singapore; we’ve got some exciting stuff going on this year, including setting up a commercial team and setting up a private office team that focuses on high net worth and joint venture projects. We set up both a PropTech and a research team, and, at the end of last year, an Australian team to focus on the appetite for Asia from that location. Our specialist focus is still the UK, followed closely by Australia.

We have an ample event presentation space that we haven't been able to use now for two years and are looking forward to returning to this, mixed with virtual presentations.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

As our name suggests, at One Global Group, our aim is to be an international ‘one-stop-shop’ for all property needs. However, we offer a lot more than just the convenience of a wealth of services under one roof. The real advantage of our business is our commitment to service. As well as providing a boutique individualised approach on a global scale, we’re committed to demystifying property investment to ensure complete transparency. Our technological innovations, such as the One Global Connect™ system, provide total visibility of the purchasing process 24/7. While our Data Hub gives investors an unrivalled level of confidence in their investments by providing real-time insights into local markets. Find out more at www.ogpsglobal.com.

With local expertise, we deliver global possibilities. Our far-reaching network enables us to provide access to the world’s finest properties, which when coupled with innovative PropTech solutions, maximises our clients' investment returns. Stay up to date with our latest news and opportunities at https://www.linkedin.com/company/ogpsglobal or email us at enquirySG@ogpsglobal. com.