His attraction to real estate began when he bought his first apartment in the city center of Brussels at the age of twenty. “I have always had a passion for renovation and decoration. So I set up this space with the few resources I had at that time.he relates. One day, a friend came to our house for dinner with a property manager friend who told me he loved the place; it was an apartment in a private mansion with a very beautiful interior garden. The manager, who worked with the Brussels real estate agency Quatriième Génération, specializing in the sale of atypical properties, offered me to renovate two apartments for them, which I did.“When the two apartments were sold,”the owner of the agency told me ‘you should do real estate and when you graduate come see us again’. Thing said, thing done since after three years of lessons, I went to see them again and I was hired. I worked there for almost eleven years. They are the ones who gave me the love of the profession”, underlines Jean-Marc Delcroix who adds: “I was able to build my network and develop in-depth knowledge of the Brussels market. Every time I went somewhere, it was always a wonderful, unusual, different place and it was a lot of fun.”
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He then met the team at Sotheby’s International Realty, the real estate arm of the international auction house. He joined as a sales agent, before quickly being promoted to sales director for the Brussels Region, and, a few years later, he opened the Walloon Brabant office. He will stay there for a total of seven years (2017-2024). “I developed and supervised a commercial strategy to increase sales and develop the image of Sotheby’s; I learned to listen, to manage teams, to recruit, to launch events linked to art or architecture…”
The Hillewaere group
Contacted by Roel Druyts, director of the Hillewaere group (active in real estate brokerage, mortgage loans and insurance, based mainly in Flanders), Jean-Marc Delcroix recently agreed to take charge of the first agency of Christie’s Real Estate Belgium in Brussels as Managing Partner. Beyond the capital, the agency, located at No. 418 Avenue Louise, extends its services to the two Brabants, as well as to the provinces of Hainaut, Namur and Liège.
“After two decades of expertise acquired in the luxury segment, Jean-Marc Delcroix was the perfect person to quickly position us on the Brussels market.”, explains Roel Druyts, founder of the group which has 25 agencies with more than 275 employees across Flanders. “For me, it is a real opportunity to join forces with a group that knows the real estate market in Belgium well and is in the top five in the world of luxury goods insurance (paintings, cars, etc.)”, adds Jean-Marc Delcroix, delighted to also be able to benefit “of the group’s broad network and its experience in marketing and cutting-edge technology.”
As for the Christie’s Real Estate brand, which has 900 agencies and 13,000 agents spread across fifty countries around the world, it stands out for selling “luxury and exceptional properties.”
gullLuxury is the exception, it’s not just a question of square meters and price.”
Real estate and art
Jean-Marc Delcroix and his team will take care of marketing “prestigious residential real estate with character such as contemporary, listed, modernist, Art Nouveau style houses, etc.he specifies. Because luxury is the exception, it is not only a question of square meters and price.”
2024 should be a great year for luxury real estate
The ambition of the new director? “Create a small team that is close to our seller and buyer clients and give them feedback, with real regular monitoring.” Its motto ? “Trust, integrity, discretion, expertise and proximity”, he replies.
Sharing the same building as Christie’s Auction, “the wish is to maximize the synergy between our two entities, given the exclusive nature of our clientele and the link between real estate and art, particularly during joint events, such as in September, for the sale of the collection art from Proximus”, indicates Jean-Marc Delcroix.
Finally, for this decor and architecture enthusiast, what could be more natural than the fact that this new office is installed in a 1936 mansion, in the configuration of an apartment redecorated in a modern, refined and bright style?
: “Luxury is the exception, it’s not just a question of square meters and price”){kind=link}