69 Magazine - Style Feature - Spring 10

Editorial - regional fashion and lifestyle magazine (readership now in excess of 350,000 throughout the midlands and north)

Sector - lifestyle

Select Magazine - Feb10

Editorial - regional magazine (Merseyside 25,000 monthly distribution, main contributor)

Sector - property and lifestyle

My Life in Property – Dave Blackman

By Gill Torres

Dave Blackman is director of property management firm Venmore and a well-known face on the Liverpool property scene. Interviewing Dave it became apparent that to be an experienced property agent is to have a privileged insight into the way people live. So as we as we profile Dave’s life in property we reflect on how city life has changed throughout the past 30 years; the opinion of a man who has helped many local people find homes during this time is an interesting one indeed.

Obviously a person able to spot ‘the next big thing’ Dave began life at Venmore working as a computer operator back in 1981 ‘The computer didn’t have a screen,’ begins Dave ‘it filled a room and was probably about as powerful as a calculator, ’ he laughs. At that time of course, it was an innovation and Vemore was one of the first local agents to begin issuing clients with printed statements. Now with Dave at the helm, cutting edge communication is something Venmore remains committed to.

When Dave initially worked his way up to property manager Venmore’s main stock in trade was terraced houses. These days they are more likely to be found managing city centre penthouse apartments in large developments and Dave believes that this is the reflection of a cultural shift, as well as the result of successful business strategies. The city centre has seen an influx of residents in the past two decades, as more of us choose rentals and apartment living.

‘The Housing Act 1988 had a huge impact on how and why people buy property,’ Dave explains. This Act allowed landlords to let on short-term tenancies for the first time and to charge a rental amount that reflected the market value of their property. In short, it made it potentially lucrative to invest in and let property. Where in the 1960’s and 1970’s there were city centre tenements, there are now luxury apartments, many of which are owned and let by private landlords.

Our choice to rent – to choose a short-term housing option living with friends, partners or alone – Dave believes is the result of a more prosperous nation in which we have more freedom to move and change our circumstances than we did in the 1970s. Of course much of this prosperity is a result of the property market.

There have been low points in this market, as we well know. Dave has worked for Venmore through 3 recessions, though he believes the recent one has been the most global. Through the recessions in the 80s and 90s banks continued to lend and their cease to do so has had the biggest impact recently. ‘Our management division remained strong throughout,’ states Dave, who puts the company’s success down to knowledge and integrity ‘when the sales market dipped lots of agents decided to start managing property… they realised that it’s not just a case of finding a tenant and taking the money. Management can be a legal minefield and you need infrastructure and experience. We are always looking to acquire the management departments of firms who are turning back to sales. Venmore has been in Liverpool since 1849 - we’ve grown and changed with the city.’

Before I leave Dave states ‘Liverpool is a big city but it feels like a village. You couldn’t maintain a career for as long as I have if you didn’t operate with integrity - you’d soon get found out,’ and I couldn’t agree more.