‘It’s extremely competitive, there’s always drama,’ says Rosy Khalastchy, one of the women who dominates London’s luxury real estate market.
Her workplace, Beauchamp Estates, is reminiscent of the real estate brokerage The Oppenheim Group, where the likes of Chrishelle Stause and Mary Fitzgerald sell homes in the Hollywood Hills on Selling Sunset.
The biggest sale the brokers have ever bagged on the Netflix show was Jason’s impressive $35.5 million home Hillside Drive. That equates to nearly £28.2 million.
By comparison, agent Rosy, 60, makes them seem like amateurs, with her biggest sale to date worth more than double that amount, at a cool £55milion in St John’s Wood.
‘It was a nice detached house with all the trimmings and a pool,’ she says. ‘Some of these houses are like dreams.’
Rosy sells property in the affluent areas of London like St John’s Wood, Regents Park and Hampstead, taking commission anywhere from 1% to 3% per sale.
She recently sold film director Tim Burton’s former £17.5 million Primrose Hill mansion, Eglon House, to a British media mogul for a record price, making it one of the most expensive sales ever in the area.
Her current favorite listing is the Lawn House mansion in Hampstead, with an asking price of £15 million.
We often see Selling Sunset agents holding open houses for luxurious properties in the Hills. But while Christine Quinn’s burgers and Botox lured in potential buyers in California, Rosy takes a slightly classier approach.
‘We collaborated with a jewellery brand so they brought their best pieces and lots of historical stories about their jewels to a specific house,’ she says.
‘Clients saw the house, they saw the jewellery, and there was networking. You know how it works. The jewellery on display was hundreds of thousands of pounds a piece.’
At another open house, she hosted a ‘very formal, intimate dinner,’ where 12 solicitors were wined and dined. And when Frieze art fair came to the city, she transformed a listing into a gallery, so London’s elite could drop in and marvel at architecture and art at once.
Rosy has also received some rather specific requests from clients on the hunt for that dream home.
‘I had a Hampstead client who wanted a house, priced up to £30million, which had space for a special health-spa style “snow room” in the garden, with a special snow and ice machine,’ she recalls.
‘The buyer either wanted a house that came with a snow room, or had ample space in the gardens, where a snow room could be built.
‘Eventually, the buyer purchased a Hampstead six bedroom house, with an extended garden, and built his own bespoke snow room.’
There was also a request from a different client regarding a pink house in Primrose Hill.
Rosy says: ‘It was the original house that inspired the famous 101-Dalmatians book and films. The vendor insisted on us having a photoshoot at the house for the marketing, with hired Dalmatian dogs. Cost a fortune!’
Then there was a house in St John’s Wood for pampered pooches: ‘The buyer was a Crufts champion dog breeder and she had a special dog VIP suite created in the house, with its own dog jacuzzi, dog hair salon area, dog sofa and special feeding station.’
While house hunters in Selling Sunset turning up in fancy cars, Rosy’s clients, the likes of which are actors, businessmen, musicians and footballers from all top Premier League clubs, use other modes of transport.
‘I remember once waiting for this buyer to arrive, it was 6pm on a Sunday, it was quite a large house, and he said he was coming with his private plane so he’d be there at six,’ she says.
‘Then I got a call saying “sorry Rosy, I have a friend I need to drop in Spain, so I will be with you at eight.”
‘He finally arrived at 9.30pm and he did buy the house. It was such an everyday thing for him, whereas other people spend months booking their flights.’
That’s if her clients are actually the ones even viewing the property at all. Some send trusted advisors or their family office to find them a suitable second or third property to add to their portfolio.
‘One Chinese buyer insisted that their Feng Shui consultant was flown over from Hong Kong to review the property, before they agreed to buy,’ she says.
Like the LA agents, Rosy works around the clock to meet her clients’ needs, but she sells way more than a sunset. She sells them a whole lifestyle.
‘We get them everything they need from a housekeeper to a butler. We try to be as helpful as possible.
‘Their children come here and need schools and help and advice. They have their own advisors, but extra help from us is always an added bonus to them.’
Unlike Davina’s notorious $75 million listing, which sat on the market and never sold, about 40% of Rosy’s high-end houses never even make it to public market.
‘The very high-end sales happen discreetly. You don’t see them online or in magazines so they basically instruct us and we offer exclusive [viewings] to people who we think it would work for,’ she says.
‘Sometimes people say to us “you know, if you ever get one of those houses in Regents park, bear me in mind. I’d be interested.”‘
One of the most expensive properties currently being marketed by Beauchamp Estates is the last remaining private townhouse on Grafton Street in Mayfair.
It’s asking price is £55 million and it was previously the headquarters of Gucci. It comes fully furnished and is complete with a spa, staff quarters, cinema room, swimming pool, six fireplaces and seven bathrooms.
Just as the Selling Sunset cast walk the halls of Hollywood homes in six-inch heels, Rosy agrees that ‘heels sell houses’.
‘When I started, image was certainly very important. The way you look makes a difference when you meet someone. There’s no doubt.’
While some of the Netflix drama may be scripted, the glamour dialled up, Rosy admits it’s not far from the truth.
‘It’s extremely competitive. There is always drama, but the more years you spend doing it, you try and stay away from it,’ she says.
‘It feels very glamourous because the properties are all very beautiful, special and unique. For me it’s fun.’
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