Question 1: Hello Daniel. I’m very pleased that you could take the time to answer a few questions. First of all, we would like to know something about you and what your job at Pillar-X is?

Through my basic training as an electrician and many further training courses in business management I have been able to get to know the process and implementation of construction projects in detail. I know what it means to make sure that everything works in the end. I am also used to taking the lead in highly complex projects so that they are completed on time and are profitable.

With exciting and responsible projects, my interest in working with capital also grew. Investments and how they relate to strategic and often emotional decisions excite me.

As a doer, I am on the front line and constantly ensure that things move forward.

Question 2: Very interesting! Your training as an electrician certainly prepared you very well for your current position. Did this also motivate you to found Pillar X?

The desire to start my own business had been there for many years. At the same time, I knew that this would not be in my previous field of work. As an entrepreneur and manager in the electrical installation business I knew that the supply massively exceeds the demand.

With around 5000 installation companies in Switzerland alone, prices are under massive pressure and so are employees and managers. This has always been a very exciting challenge for me, but I couldn’t imagine doing it on a self-employed basis.

Thomas and I have an extremely good relationship and we have pursued many hobbies together, including the hobby of “working” with money. That means making smaller and larger investments and learning what it means to take risks, to calculate risks, to create securities, and above all to see and use opportunities.

Thus, many conversations and many factual and technical books in the field of investment – and especially real estate investment – have led us to embark on the Pillar-X journey.

Question 3: One can literally feel the passion for your work. What does your day-to-day work actually look like?

No two days are the same. As a doer and “front office guy”, I’m naturally at the front. Lots of calls, zoom, teams, video calls to England. I often have to deal with other investors and various real estate people from England. I am also driven by work such as calculations and finding solutions on a daily basis.

Every property is subject to certain economic principles, and I calculate what makes sense and what does not. My job is also to “move forward”. I am often a driver for new, different things, without thinking too much about what else could be.

This certainly helps us to keep the pace. However, I couldn’t do this without the rest of our team and I’m glad that Thomas and Louise bring me back down to earth every now and then.

Question 4: Your working day sounds very exciting and demanding. What challenges have you already faced at Pillar X?

From the very beginning (shortly after the start of the Corona Pandemic) it was clear that this was not going to be an easy journey. As a Swiss resident, founding and running an English company would probably go a bit differently than planned in 2019…

One of the biggest challenges was definitely leading and building a team miles away. As a hands-on guy, I’ve been used to going on site “when things get sticky” to help and support and resolve any issues.

This task is quite different overseas. It was not a special event, but the circumstance itself. Today I am very proud of it and can say that we can run and manage this business from anywhere. Of course, we are very happy that we can travel much more “normally” again today.

Question 5: Now that the Corona pandemic is slowly dying down, we can also talk about the positive aspects of this time. Which project was particularly close to your heart?

Our first project in the Liverpool region (the Wallasey project) is very close to my heart. It was the first block of 10 flats, which was very challenging in terms of planning, planning permission, regeneration, and management.

Also, when we started it, it was the first project that required massively more capital than all the other individual flats or single-family houses we have realised.

Question 6: The Corona pandemic had a massive impact on the property market that hardly anyone could have anticipated. As an expert, do you have any views on the future of the UK property market?

This is a very difficult question to answer because I think it is a huge mix of factors that have to work well together. Apart from political aspects, environmental conditions are also very relevant.

Fundamentally, however, every market is dependent on supply and demand. This in turn is reflected in the real estate market by rental demand (rental income) and purchase demand (house prices).

I think the most important point here is the question of how “well” the population is doing; how great the purchasing power is and thus “how well you know a market” comes into play again. Our advantage is that we focus strictly on Liverpool, Glasgow and Bradford, so we know the local market conditions.

Question 7: If the outlook is so difficult to predict, do you think that real estate will continue to be a sensible investment in the future?

Definitely! Again, you can’t just say “yes” in general! There is an old saying that the 3 most important factors for successful real estate investment are: Location, Location, Location!

And so, it is. We buy the right property in the right place, at the right price, and thus the investment makes sense. Of course, a real estate market can and will experience smaller and larger storms (e.g., real estate crisis 2007-2008). However, our investments are invested for a very long time, and thus interim lows are not very risky, especially because we diversify our portfolio (property type/location).