64 | OPP INTERVIEW Cardea WORDS | Amit Katwala
CARDEA
International property development is often seen as something of a masculine world, so it is encouraging to see two young women making waves with their own consultancy company. OPP talks exclusively to Lisa Basire and Naomi Cambridge of Cardea Property Consultants about their work in the Caribbean and their young, but fl ourishing company.
I
t is sad but true … “in a male dominated industry, when we meet developer clients for the fi rst
time, there is often an initial scepticism because we are young and female,” say the owners of Cardea Property Consultants, Lisa Basire (pictured on the left, above) and Naomi Cambridge. “However, our market and industry knowledge quickly breaks through the preconceptions.” Despite their relative youth, they are
experienced and successful members of the overseas property community, and both entered the fi eld immediately after university.
Cambridge remembers: “growing up in an entrepreneurial family”. She
said: “I got the property buzz when my family moved into the buy-to-let market in the early 1990s ... and then into small-scale residential development. I had always been interested in art history and, after studying it at university, I became fascinated by the stories behind entrepreneurs. I realised the importance of making your own luck and of doing what you love.”
For Basire the starting point was
slightly different. “Having always loved to travel, I decided to study geography at university and, as part of my course, I studied resort planning and mixed use developments. As the travel industry is notoriously low paid, I looked towards a career in property. In 2000, I joined
Premier Resorts Ltd where I managed the very successful launch of Aphrodite Hills in Cyprus, along with various other developments in Portugal, France and the Caribbean. At the same time I studied for my Chartered Institute of Marketing diploma at evening classes to hone my marketing skills.”
Having acquired the knowledge and experience required to make a move, Basire and Cambridge spotted a gap in the market for a high-end boutique sales and marketing consultancy.
“We already had the skills and
contacts, plus the global recession had hit most competitors hard. Having
worked together for six years on a series of successful luxury developments,
we decided that it was time to take the plunge and used our experience to set up our own consultancy. Our business strengths are quite complementary, as we specialise in different areas of sales and marketing. This makes us a really dynamic team.”
They are currently working on
the Sugar Beach development on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. Why? “Award-winning Sugar Beach is currently the best development in the Caribbean ... arguably the world,” they believe. “We have maintained our focus on the Caribbean because we both have a great in-depth knowledge of the region, having both spent extended periods of time there.
www.opp.org.uk | FEBRUARY 2011
Striking out anew
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