Voices in Property - Natalie Malka
60 Seconds with...
Welcome to our quick-fire spotlight on industry leaders and entrepreneurs in Property.
In this edition, Natalie Malka, Founder and Bespoke Property Consultant at Natalie Malka Property, shares personal insights and experiences with anyone who may be currently working in or aspiring to join the London property industry.
What are you most proud of in your career?
I would have to say I am most proud of having had the courage to leave the security of the corporate world and build something of my own. Starting a business and turning it into Natalie Malka Property, whilst earning a reputation as someone people genuinely trust, is immensely humbling and something I am still taking in. When I look at how far I have come and the clients and relationships I have built over the years, I feel incredibly proud.
What was your first job in property, and how did you get it?
My first job in property was at Foxtons, where it turns out so many of us went to “graduate”, and I got the job in a slightly unconventional way. I had finished college and planned to take a gap year travelling before university. I was temping, selling advertising space for a magazine to make some money for my travels. My first call was to Foxtons in Hampstead, which was very funny and shows how clueless I was. I had always looked through their windows whilst growing up and hanging out in Hampstead as a teenager, and always imagined what the homes were like inside. They were the only windows, funnily enough, that I ever stopped at.
I sat down with the manager at the time and gave him my pitch. He took one look at the magazine, stood up, slammed it on the table in front of me and told me it was the biggest load of rubbish he had ever seen, but that I had sold it to him, then told me to come and work for him. The rest, as they say, is history.
Looking back, it made complete sense. I had always loved property and psychology, and I had always loved selling. Even as a young child, I knew I was good at selling and would sell anything and everything. I knew I wanted a career where I could dress up, meet people and stay close to home rather than commute into the City every day. I couldn’t even think of catching trains; I wanted to drive a nice car and simply hadn’t put everything together, never had I imagined that property could give me all of that. I was so young.
What motivates you?
There are two sides to it. On a personal level, I am motivated by being able to provide for my family and create the life I want for us. I have always wanted to work and earn so that I could choose the life I had. Professionally, I love knowing that I’m helping someone navigate one of the biggest and most meaningful transactions of their life: their home. Being there for them and making it happen.
I am very driven by doing the best possible job for my clients. I thrive on being busy, I love the buzz, and I’m probably happiest when I’m solving a problem that initially looks impossible.
What is your best advice for preparing for an interview?
Be yourself! No one else is you. Do your research, but don’t rehearse to the point that you stop sounding like yourself. Be real, be authentic, be fully present and let the interviewer see why the opportunity genuinely matters to you. Skills and experience are important, but people also remember how you made them feel. Authenticity is far more compelling. Find the positive in everything, even when you might feel extremely nervous and anxious.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Always believe in yourself and trust your instincts. Energy is everything. Don’t change who you are to fit into somebody else’s idea of who you should be, and don’t allow anyone to make you feel that your ambitions are too big.
The things that make you different will eventually become your strengths. If you can genuinely see a life for yourself, and you are willing to work for it and do what it takes, you are much closer to creating it than you realise. If you can dream it, you can live it. If it exists in your mind and you can truly feel it, you can have it. I am a big believer in manifestation.
Which leader, entrepreneur, founder or CEO inspires you?
Oof, this is a tough one. I am inspired by quite a few in all categories that I’m not sure I can choose. I particularly admire self-made women, especially those who have built something from nothing especially whilst raising a family. Whether they are artists, designers, nutritionists, founders, I admire all women who back themselves, develop their own voice and style, and create success on their own terms. I love watching their journeys and seeing them grow.
I know first-hand that building a business while being a mother requires resilience, discipline, and a lot of juggling and multitasking. Seeing other women thrive in both parts of their lives inspires me enormously. Social media today takes things to another level and connects us all in ways that were never possible before .
What was your best deal?
This is a difficult one because every stage of your career brings a different kind of "best" – your first deal, your biggest deal, your quickest deal, and the one nobody thought you could ever pull off.
If I had to choose, it would be a house on Gayton Road that I sold many years ago. My buyers had been searching for two long years, and I was determined to find them something, but I had concluded that if this wasn't the one, I was done, lol. I approached an owner off-market and asked what his number was. He cheekily replied that he "didn't have one", but we all know in agency that everyone has a number. Forty-eight hours later, he called me and asked to see me. He had his number! He gave me his price, and I made him promise that if I got it, he would honour his word. Subsequently, the buyers made an offer to match.
There was just one problem: he had nowhere to go – or so he thought. I knew that was coming, so I had already lined up a house swap with them and, in that instance, ran him down the road to view it, and it was perfect. That gave the buyers the home they so wanted and had been looking for, and gave the sellers somewhere to land while they worked out their next move.
On the day the deal was finally agreed, we learned that stamp duty was about to increase significantly that very night at midnight. The outcome of this would have broken the deal. The buyers had nothing in place: no mortgage, no survey, no lawyer, and no searches. We literally raced through another viewing to confirm that it was indeed the one, and then I put them in a taxi and sent them to my most trusted solicitor, where an attended exchange took place four minutes before midnight. Many happy years at the house followed, and it was those very buyers who, all those years later, returned to me, instructing me to sell it for them, which led me to setting myself up in sales under Natalie Malka Property.
That deal captures everything I love about this job: building relationships, thinking creatively, and finding a way through when it seems impossible. Making it happen. Most importantly, building trust. The best part is that the sellers became some of my greatest clients and supporters and are now special friends.
What’s your favourite restaurant?
Roka. I love Pan-Asian food, and it never misses.
Apple or Android?
Apple! Technology and I are not friends, so anything that makes life simple wins.
Find out more about Natalie Malka Property here and connect with Natalie Malka here.
Photo credit: Hannah Lovemore
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