Konrad Abela Interview

Konrad Abela is a co-owner with Quicklets, which is the largest estate agency in Malta specializing in letting. Opening their first office in 2013, they now have 8 offices and over 100 letting specialists. They have branched out in to sales with the very recent launch of Zanzi Homes in San Gwann. Konrad shares his thoughts with us on today’s property market, the challenges of running a successful business and raising a family.

Thanks for taking time out from your busy schedule. You have been with Quicklets from the start and seen the company grow fast. What would you say are the key factors for such fast success?

I clearly recall the day that I met Steve outside Malta International Airport. Steve had missed his flight and I had just returned from UK. After some small talk, Steve invited me to meet up and discuss joining forces to start up the sales department within Quicklets. What started from a ‘coincidental’ encounter flourished into a fantastic and successful working relationship with 5 offices set up and a workforce of  over 100 sales and letting specialists.

I believe that the 4 key factors to Quicklets success and Zanzi homes following in the same footsteps is a perfect concoction of having a passion for the industry, serving our clients real estate needs foremost and the financial reward being a result of it. Hard work, grinding the market on a daily basis from morning till night as to be able to offer the best product to our clientele.  A master mind core of leaders collectively putting our thoughts together to revolutionize the industry. Timing, the market is ripe and will remain this way for quite a long time.

 

 The letting market has become so fast with most good deals snapped up in a matter of hours, has this made life harder for you and your team?

The letting market has become lightening fast. A rental property comes available in the morning and is rented by the afternoon. To keep up with the current market, we invested in a cutting edge, top notch back end system which makes our modus operandi very efficient in order to give a pristine service to our clients. I believe that our back end system gives us the fair advantage of being 10 steps ahead from other rental agencies. Being the largest rental agency on the island with over 100 letting specialists, grinding the market on a daily basis to list all rental properties that are available on the island is another asset to Quicklets. There is no rental property on the island that we are unaware about. Our team are young, dynamic with a can do attitude as a result to weekly coaching and daily mentoring that our branch leaders provide.   

 

Prices are at an all-time high in the letting industry due to issues with supply and demand. Do you think prices will continue to rise like this?

The rental price is a reflection of what the market is willing to pay. This is a very simple concept yet many fail to comprehend. As long as the market is willing to pay prices requested by rental property owners, prices will keep on increasing. As soon as rental properties remain vacant as the market is not willing to pay the price requested, rental prices will decrease. I personally believe that the rental market is still in its prime. With International occurrences such as Brexit we should be expecting an influx of companies to our island that prefer to operate in a EU zone, with Malta being their best option due to what the island has to offer. The rental market will remain strong and lucrative for quite a long time to come.

Congratulations on the recent opening of Zanzi Homes, we really like the new office and website. How do you guys plan to replicate the success of Quicklets?

We have the recipe for success and we will replicate with Zanzi Homes what we did with Quicklets. Zanzi Homes has been operating under the name of Quicklets – Buy to Let for over 12 months already. The results are mind blowing. We managed to build a team of over 20 sales specialists while breaking our sales targets month after month on a consistent basis. We managed to put a mark in the industry without a website and without a brand name to work with.  I believe we will be highly rated amongst the top names in the industry once our website and brand is officially launched.

 

You’re a family man, a businessman, you have had success in international poker tournaments and most recently started playing Pokemon Go. How do you have time for everything? Do you ever sleep?

Haha! You might not believe what I am about to tell you and I will not go into much detail about this subject but let’s say I mastered the art of intermittent sleeping. Basically it’s a sleeping method where you train your mind to deep sleep in intervals of a couple of hours. It’s not the first time I reply to an email at 3am or 5am in between my sleeping sessions. I make sure not to miss a thing J Meditation and prayer is a very important key element that keeps me sane in my fast moving and jam-packed lifestyle.   

Obviously I have a master mind of people that help me out. My wife is my pillar and support at home. I have a fantastic poker coach with whom I keep in touch with and keeps me up to date with the game. My twin boys are my side kick to succeed at Pokemon Go J

 

Thanks once again for your time. Find out more about Quicklets and Zanzi Homes by going to their websites: www.quicklets.com.mt and www.zanzihomes.com