When Richard O’Neill launched Artis, his independent real estate and consultancy firm, in 2019, he wasn’t chasing a gap in the Irish property market so much as betting on the strength of his own relationships.
“At the time, I looked at my own contacts and realised that there was an opportunity. From that point on, it was a case of backing myself to add to and diversify the relationship base,” he said.
Seven years on, Artis has grown into a nine‑person, valuations‑led real estate advisory with national reach, a specialist reputation in alternative lending, and ambitions to become, in O’Neill’s words, “the leading non‑corporate commercial valuation practice in the country”.
Everyone sees the polished brand and the growing client list. What they don’t see, O’Neill says, is the grind underneath.
“For me it’s like an episode of Dragons’ Den that no one will ever see.”
Artis launched roughly six months before the Covid-19 lockdowns, timing that shaped the business model.
“It taught me an early lesson on creating a repeatable cash flow,” he said. “This has manifested in building a solid, repeatable fee base via our valuation services and then concentrating further on various sub‑sectors where we knew there was a healthy line of regular business to be won.”
Today, around 80 per cent of Artis’s revenue comes from valuations.
Artis may be seven years old, but its approach was forged earlier at Allsop/BidX1, where O’Neill worked on high‑volume auction campaigns.
“At its height, maybe 350 or so properties [were] at an auction,” he said. “To get to 300 properties, you’ve got to price up maybe 1,000.”
“You get a huge base level understanding for how the market reacts to certain items,” he said.
“Based on live experience, we can say, ‘At the levels we’re talking about, you’ll be fine’ – or, ‘If that’s the value you’re relying on, you’re going to struggle,’” he said.
“You’ve got to know your standards… but the way you can really add value is to be able to talk a client through what is going on in the market and why it’s happening. I think that separates the good from the really good real estate consultants.”
Winning the right clients
When Artis began seeking places on lenders’ valuation panels, O’Neill studied client feedback and competitors’ report templates and redesigned his own.
“I didn’t want to look out of place or be considered as an inferior offering. So I invested heavily in creating a look and feel that didn’t look out of place,” he said.
“I wanted ours to stand out in their look, content and directness. If we were losing a pitch, it wasn’t going to be due to any of our materials.
Artis’s early break came with bridging and alternative lenders such as Onate, which acted as an anchor or early lender that validated Artis’s model.
“We developed a very good relationship with them by getting the report format delivered in a way that they were really happy with and made their lives easier, and giving them a really good response time because that was an issue they were having with other valuers,” he said.
That combination of clarity and speed became Artis’s calling card. Once it worked for Onate, O’Neill used the relationship as a proof point to win over others
“We now cover a very broad range of clients and sectors,” O’Neill says. “The current breadth and depth of our market coverage and client base surprises a lot of people.”
The Big Guns
In a market dominated at the top end by CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield and other global brands, O’Neill is realistic but unapologetic.
There are certain cases where we know the clients will need a global corporate and that’s fine,” he said. “But I’m here to win the ball on everything below that line.”
His strategy is simple: out‑think and out‑deliver.
“I’m constantly looking at what other people are producing and how we position ourselves ahead of them, whether that’s in reporting standards and presentation or innovative sales strategies; aligned to that is having a highly impressive team,” he said.
“If we put our front row up on a pitch and it’s assessed on market knowledge, professionalism and contacts, then we’re going to be hard to beat.”
His “front row” includes minority shareholder Brian Gary, who leads the investment side; director and company secretary Ellen Prenderville; and non-executive director Rocky O’Carroll, whom O’Neill describes as a “chief of everything”.
Technology, and now AI, is another lever he’s keen to pull early.
“When I first started the business, the big buzz term at the time was ‘Prop‑Tech’,” he said. “We were one of the early adopters of online bidding for private treaty sales, which has now become widespread.”
Today, “AI” is the new buzzword, and he expects it to have “a far greater overhaul of workflows and practices”.
“Within our business over the past six months, we’ve integrated it across our templates, which will be supplemented by a bespoke‑built AI‑led CRM system to amplify its efficiencies across all of our workflows,” he said.
“Whilst I don’t see AI replacing the professional advice and human interface of the business, I do see it providing huge efficiencies on a day‑to‑day basis; those who don’t adopt it are going to be at a disadvantage.”
The next 12 to 24 months, if things go to plan, will see further expansion: a Munster regional office, a more visible commercial and investment agency presence beyond buy‑side mandates, and more portfolio sales on the residential side.
O’Neill is also open to “strategically acquiring other firms that can supplement and complement our current offerings.”
For all the planning, though, he remains an evangelist for entrepreneurial leap‑taking. Asked what he’d say to someone in a secure professional services role who is thinking about starting their own firm, he doesn’t hesitate.
“What are you waiting for?”
Credit: Sunday Business Post