On Thursday 26 February, we held our latest King’s Association breakfast networking event in London, focusing on real estate. Over 40 OKS, parents, and friends of King’s gathered at Knight Frank’s London offices to hear from our expert OKS panel and connect with one another.

Our panellists were:

• Amber Kendall (BR 2013-17) - Surveyor at Savills
• Amelia Paine (JR 2013-18) - Associate (Real Estate) at Simmons & Simmons LLP
• Jody Mycroft (BR 1984-89) - Director at Mungo Property
• Tim Hamlin (MR 1993-98) - Director of Asset Management at Picton Property Income Limited
• Lizzie Friend (LX 2015-17) - Surveyor (Build to Rent Funding) at Knight Frank
• Panel Chair: Andrew Hynard (LX 1973-76) - Non-Exec Chair at Clipstone, Non-Exec at Howard Group

The discussion started with Amber, Lizzie and Amelia explaining the routes they took to start their careers. They had all taken similar routes, through graduate schemes, but also noted the various apprenticeship pathways have recently become popular. Working in the law side of real estate, Amelia’s path was slightly different and she explained the competitive nature of getting into the industry.

Tim shared that he got into real estate through a career change, so he found it slightly easier to get into because of his working experience. He spoke about asset management being ‘the jack of all trades’ where you need a good general knowledge of the industry to succeed. Jody led an interesting discussion about the advancement in technology, including the use of ‘digital twins’ and the importance of connection.

After insightful audience questions, to wrap up the discussion, Andrew asked each panellist to share their key advice for someone considering a real estate career. Their answers were:

• Jody: “Act in the best interest of your client, make contacts and be truthful.”
• Amelia: “The real estate world is a small one, so be kind to one another and leave a good impression.”
• Tim: “Many applications are written using AI now - some of the best ones are handwritten.”
• Amber: “Get to know people, it is a people industry.”
• Lizzie: “Explore all the different pathways available and do your research.”

We would like to extend a huge thank you to our panellists, to Lizzie for hosting at Knight Frank, and to Andrew for chairing the discussion. We hope those who attended found the discussion engaging and made useful connections over coffee! 

If you have an idea for the next breakfast networking event, or would like to get involved as a host or panellist, please get in touch with the Development Team: community@kings-school.co.uk

Did you know that you can use the King’s Association website to network in the meantime? We have over 2,600 members on our website, many of whom have signed up as ‘online mentors.’ Our mentors can help with career advice, CV reviews, interview practice and much more. Head to our ‘mentoring’ tab to learn about our online mentoring programme.