MARKETING REPORT The Kennels Catsfield Battle East Sussex TN33 9DU ON BEHALF OF East Sussex and Romney Marsh Hunt Company PREPARED BY Leo Hickish FRICS MBIAC Batcheller Monkhouse No.1 London Road Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 1DH Regulated by the RICS 16 March 2018 The Kennels, Catsfield CONTENTS 1 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................. 2 2 MARKETING CAMPAIGN ................................................................................................. 2 2.1 PARTICULARS.............................................................................................................................................. 2 2.2 MAIL SHOT ................................................................................................................................................. 3 2.3 ONLINE MARKETING .................................................................................................................................... 3 2.4 SOCIAL MEDIA ............................................................................................................................................ 4 2.5 SALE BOARD ............................................................................................................................................... 4 3 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 5 4 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................... 6 Appendix 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Sales Particulars .................................................................................................................................... 1 1 The Kennels, Catsfield 1 BACKGROUND The property is The Kennels on the edge of the village of Catsfield. The property comprises a range of purpose build kennels, build in 1884 for fox hounds. The buildings predominantly comprise small brick kennels with outside yards, serviced by external passageways. There are in addition service rooms used for the storage of associated supplied and equipment. There is also a three-bay steel framed barn in part converted for the storage of flesh and offal. Attached are more extensive details set out in the marketing particulars. These are bespoke buildings designed to accommodate packs of hounds in ventilated kennels with low eaves. 2 MARKETING CAMPAIGN The property has been formally marketed since 2 June 2017 and continues to be marketed at the time of writing. The campaign made best use of modern and traditional marketing techniques including advertising, on-line marketing, direct mailings and on social media outlets. The marketing campaign was for the Kennels to be advertised ‘For Sale’ with offers invited – which comprise a range of buildings set in a rural location. Interested parties could come forward with any potential offers. Given that the buildings have only a sui generis planning permission for use as hound kennels it will be appreciated that any alternative use, be this commercial, residential or leisure would require planning consent. 2.1 Particulars A4 particulars were prepared and designed to promote the buildings for as wide a range of uses as possible. They included a location plan, sale plan and floor plan. An Energy Performance Certificate was also undertaken. A copy of the particulars are found in Appendix 1. 2 The Kennels, Catsfield 2.2 Mail Shot The particulars were initially emailed to approximately 75 people on our constantly updated mailing list produced from our REAPIT database for rural and commercial property. This mail shot did not produce any enquiries. The exercise was carried out at the beginning of the marketing exercise and again in January 2018. 2.3 Online Marketing The property has been extensively marketed online. This is on our own website and on national websites including Rightmove.com and OntheMarket.com. All three went live on 2 June 2017. Since it went live, our website has had 928 hits, Rightmove has had 3170 hits and Onthemarket has had 966 hits. Of those that saw the property online we had 28 formal enquiries from people who were happy to provide their contact details and give an indication of their intention for the property. A further 14 enquiries did not take their interest any further and did not wish to leave their contact details. The majority wished to pursue some form of planning as either as a small scale residential development or holiday lets, with a couple enquiring about use as an events venue. We had no enquiries for B1 or B8 uses. Some were for continued use as dog kennels, but as will be seen from the particulars, perversely these buildings are not suited to use as domestic boarding kennels, which require individual kennels and runs, and not of course group kennels for large numbers of animals. Those that enquired tended to be small scale developers or people looking for a project. Extensive local experience in this market demonstrates that any demand can be captured through this medium. This has proven to be the most effective method of marketing property. The traditional methods of placing adverts in local press are no longer effective and serves more as an advertisement for a firm rather than the property, hence we decided not to advertise in local press. 3 The Kennels, Catsfield 2.4 Social Media The Kennels have been posted on the companies Instagram and Facebook accounts which is an increasingly popular method of advertising and being more widely used. Our followers tend to be those involved in or interested in rural property. We had 2 responses to the Facebook post. 2.5 Sale Board It was not feasible to erect a sale board for Health & Safety and animal health reasons due to the working nature of the property. They often encourage people to look at the property without the company of the agent, with inherent security and animal health issues. In fact less than half of the property we marker for sale nowadays use For Sale boards. 3 EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST Batcheller Monkhouse is involved in the management of farms and estates throughout the South East. Over this period, we have successfully let or sold numerous rural business opportunities such as this. We are also well known within the industry and speak regularly with other professionals involved in this market place. We have both an extensive database of prospective applicants and agents, and a good understanding of how best to market such opportunities to the widest audience. Despite this, no firm expressions of interest have come to light throughout this period. From our discussion with those making enquiries it is apparent that there are a number of factors that adversely affect the scope for redevelopment of this site for commercial and other economic uses and have thus resulted in no formal offers for the property. Many of the comments received related to the bespoke design of the buildings, constructed as they were in 1880 specifically for the accommodation of a pack of fox hounds. We did receive some enquiries from people looking to establish canine boarding kennels. Their interest was lost when they understood the nature of these buildings, being for the housing of up to 30 dogs in one enclosure, as opposed to individual kennels, such as they would require. The buildings are not adaptable to such a design. Furthermore, use as a boarding kennels would only continue the very use that has created such environmental health issues that require the current owner to relocate. 4 The Kennels, Catsfield The majority of the applicants were for those seeking redevelopment of the site for residential use. A summary of those applicants who wished to leave their details is set out in the attached list. 4 CONCLUSION The property has been robustly marketed for nine months. More than 5,500 people have shown interest in this property, via either direct marketing or on-line advertising. This led to 42 telephone enquiries. We had a good response from our marketing campaign albeit they tended to be one off enquiries. The responses of future use were predominately along the lines of small scale development for residential use. We believe that sufficient marketing has been carried out to target the likely purchaser of such a property. There is no reason to believe that further marketing will bring forward any more viable interest in the property. 5 The Kennels, Catsfield Appendix 1 Sales Particulars The Kennels Enquiries -Strictly Confidential 1. Britton Date: Date 06/06/2017. Residential and Equestrian Redevelopment 2. Pennington. Date 05/06/2017. Residential Development 3. Dachtler. Date 15/06/17. Relocating from London seeking residential development 4. Burgess. Date: 22/06/17. Residential Development 5. Clayson. Date 22/06/17. Residential Development 6. Bhattessa. Date 29/06/17. Residential and Wedding Venue scheme 7. Christofi. Date 07/07/2017. Commercial Development, buildings not large enough 8. Cleary. Date 07/07/2017. Looking to purchase adjacent house 9. Thorpe. Date 11/07/2017. Residential Development 10. McCarthy. Date 17/07/2017. Residential development 11. Collins. Date 08/08/2017. Looking for a residential project 12. Brown. Date 16/08/17. Residential and other Development 13. Jaggi. Date 16/08/17. Residential Development 14. Sawyers. Date 23/08/17. Animal Sanctuary with housing 15. Morris.