Meet Paul Fairlamb: at home edition

Mon 4 May 2020

Continuing our ‘at home series’… we’d like you to meet Paul Fairlamb. Paul is an Associate Commercial Surveyor at youngsRPS and is based in our Newcastle office.

How long have you been at youngsRPS and give us an overview of what you do day-to-day? 
I’m an Associate Commercial Surveyor and I have been with Youngs RPS since the merger with Stanton Mortimer in October 2017. Previously I had been with Stanton Mortimer for 11 years and prior to that worked in similar roles in both the public and private sectors.

What attracted you to your industry?
At school I had always fancied a career in Environmental Health. My school ran a GCSE course in Environmental Health but it wasn’t running for our year group, so I was convinced to take GCSE Surveying instead. I ended up really enjoying the varied nature of the subject and got a job in a surveying practice the day after I left school.

What would you say you specialise in?
I specialise in the management, letting and sale of commercial property including the sale of property investments and development land.

What has been your career highlight?
Completing the sale of high value development sites and investments is always a challenge but has led to some memorable deals.

What event or experience has had the greatest positive impact on you?
Trekking in China 12 years ago was a great experience. The contrast between the opulence of the grand hotels in Beijing and the living conditions and friendliness of people in the countryside was vast.

How do you get the best out of what you do?
Communicating effectively with both parties in a transaction to achieve the best solution. A friendly approach also helps – confrontation and dispute isn’t always necessary or desirable to achieve a good result; to me the key is about understanding a client’s objectives.

What do you find most interesting about your industry?
The variety of our industry makes it an interesting business to be involved in. No two properties are the same and every client has slightly different objectives. Most of our business in concentrated in the north of England, but we also serve clients with property throughout the UK which adds to the variety.

How does what you do link to the other services at youngsRPS?
Many of our clients have mixed portfolios in the commercial, rural and residential sectors, and therefore there is a strong link with our rural and residential teams. We also work closely with our planning team in identifying potential development sites and bringing them to the market.

What do you see for the future of development in and around the North East?
The full effect of Covid 19 on the property market is yet to be understood. However, there is an underlying strength in the north east which we all need to build upon. It will also be increasingly important to be open minded to the changing market and look at alternative uses for property and having mixed and diverse portfolios in order to ride through the peaks and troughs of the market. I wrote about this in our latest edition of Insight, which can be read by clicking here.