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The Modern House

Meet the man who has the key to Britain's finest modern architecture…

There are many specialist estate agencies, with fortes that vary from flats and bungalows to country estates.

But the Modern House, an agency that deals solely in homes of truly outstanding modern design, has carved an impressively eclectic niche all of its own.

Despite having no shop front, doing almost no advertising, and an entry policy that makes the Queen's garden parties look like a free-for-all, the company is celebrating its fifth year in business.

We asked co-founder Matt Gibberd, architectural journalist and grandson of the celebrated Modern Movement architect Sir Frederick Gibberd, how it all works.


Where did the idea come from?

Albert Hill, my business partner and old school friend, had the idea. He was working as a journalist for Wallpaper magazine, and he was sent to the US to write about modernist houses, and he came across agents there doing it. We were both architectural journalists and we decided there was a gap in the market over here for buyers influenced by the quality of design not just location.


But aren't British people innately suspicious of modern architecture?

We've discovered that that's increasingly not the case. The British actually have a huge thirst for modern architecture. But this is relatively new. Our company is five years old and we pitched it just right because it's over the last five years that attitudes have changed and British people have become increasingly less scared of modernity.


How do you choose which properties you will take on?

Our parameters are the 1920s, the early years of the Modern Movement, up to the present day. But we don't just sell anything built in the 20th and 21st century. We have to like the design and, because of our architectural background, we have the necessary knowledge and judgement. We act as a filter for the best of its kind. In many cases the buildings that we represent will have already appeared in books, journals, magazines and TV programmes.


And what about location?

We also like to take people away from the areas they feel comfortable in and show them areas they've not previously considered. Modern houses have been built wherever there's land to build on. Some have been built in traditionally sought after areas but there are others slotted into quite unprepossessing sites. For example, we sold an amazing house on Kilburn High Road. It was a crazy location, with traffic noise and street sellers and we had have to clear half a ton of furniture from the front door, but it was such a well designed house that it went for the asking price.


Apart from the properties, what makes you different from any other estate agency?

1. Our background. Our background is in art history and architectural journalism, not estate agency. We both still write a lot.

2. Our specialism. Since the design is as important as the location or number of bedrooms, we are as much like art dealers as estate agents.

3. Quality. We're very careful to maintain the quality of our stock, and only take on about 50 per cent of what we are offered.

4. We're internet based. Our website is our shop window and we spend a lot of time making sure we get high visitor numbers.

5. Almost no advertising. We spend an extraordinarily small amount on advertising. We find it doesn't really work. It's not specific enough. But we get a lot of press, because our product is so strong and we commission really good photos. You'll find us in the home supplements of the weekend magazines.

6. Broad geographical spread. Realistically we get more instructions in London and the Home Counties but we've got something near St Ives at the moment, and we've sold in Edinburgh.

7. Viewings. We tend to have viewing days, with people booked in every half an hour. But recently we had 30 people who wanted to see a property so we had to space them 10 or 15 minutes apart.


How do you value such unique buildings?

It's not easy. But we've built a database of what we consider to be every important modern house or apartment in the UK and we keep records of what they sell for. We've got a huge amount of information to draw on and we keep a very close eye. Sellers call us in because we have this unique resource. A local agent won't have it. Sellers always say local estate agents don't understand their house. Hopefully we do. They have their speciality, we have ours.


Tell me about a building that has really surprised you.

We sold an apartment designed by David Adjaye. It's called the Lost House, in Kings Cross, and it was unusual because the entire thing was black. We sold it for an asking price of £2.7 million. It had three huge light wells and the floor was very shiny black resin. It was like standing on water.


Who are your clients

We have an extremely broad demographic. A large percentage of our buyers are Londoners. Quite a few are guys who work in the City. Equally there are 30-somethings with young families who have less to spend.

All of our clients are the sort of people who are motivated by quality of design. Our buyers are often very knowledgeable; we sell to a lot of architects, designers, and artists. They want something that, in the future, will be important architecturally. It's an investment.


What sort of money are we talking?

The cheapest flat we've sold was £180k – it was in an apartment block designed by Ernö Goldfinger. Our average house is about £900k. The most expensive so far was £10 million. But we don't discriminate by price.


How's the business fairing now?

Obviously we were affected by the slump but this was mainly because our buyers found it difficult to sell their own properties. We're lucky because the unique nature of what we sell means some of it will sell in any market. And now we're busier than we've ever been.


What's your favourite house currently on your books?

It's a house on Swains Lane in Highgate designed by Eldridge Smerin It's up for the Manser Medal for the best one-off house and I think it might win. It's a staggeringly well-detailed house. Built beside Highgate cemetery, it has romantic views over the trees and the Victorian gravestones. It's a very inspiring place to be. The owner had it in the Open House this year. It was so popular they had to turn away 500 people, and the police had to come and close off the road.


Don't you like old houses?

Yes! Although we deal exclusively in modern houses, ultimately it's the architecture we're interested in. I'm in believer in classic good design and I would always advocate that whatever people want, they should buy the best of its type.


  • By Nikki Sheehan
    06 October 2009