Gabriel Palmroth Understands The California Real Estate Market
Every young boy has a dream. For Gabriel Palmroth, who was born in a small town in Sweden, that dream was shaped like skyscrapers.
From an early age, the entrepreneur and accomplished businessman had a vision for his life – he wanted to become a major player in real estate and decided to move to California and make a name for himself.
Today, Gabriel and his company Palmroth Group have become synonymous with large scale investment, development and real estate sales – and with several A-list clients such as hip hop icon French Montana (to whom Gabriel sold a house that was previously owned by Selena Gomez) Mr. Palmroth has perfected a holistic approach to real estate entrepreneurship.
We had an illuminating conversation with Mr. Palmroth, and here´s what we learned:
What trends do you think will define the year 2020 when it comes to real estate and investing?
2020 is going to be interesting. We are late in the cycle plus we have an election coming up so there is a lot of uncertainty. At the same time buyer demand is high, supply is low and rates have never been better. This is likely going to lead to good opportunities opening up in the market as hesitant investors pass on good deals that more aggressive investors will be able to capitalize on.
We have an incredible housing shortage in LA County and we are going to see a larger focus on more affordable housing over the high-end homes by the major developers.
Apartments will also increase in demand as more and more people choose renting over owning.
Name 3 people that inspire you in the industry.
1. Donald Trump -
When I first heard about Donald Trump buying the worn out Commodore Hotel at 28 years old and turning it into The Grand Hyatt. How he negotiated a 100-year tax abatement on the property with the city to make the deal work and partnered up with Hyatt to get the financing. Hearing about this made me feel incredibly inspired and I knew instantly that I wanted to do similar deals. Shortly after I moved to America and got into real estate.
2. Rick Caruso -
I love what he has done with The Grove. Everyone is whining about the downfall in retail and what does Caruso do? He innovates and builds retail that outperforms all competition by creating a unique experience. He even outperforms Disney land in visitors per sq./ft. He also builds beautiful condos and apartments around the city.
3. Jon Gray -
He is pretty much responsible for creating the real estate department at Blackstone and turning it into the largest real estate owner in the world by buying entire real estate companies, not just the real estate. Very inspiring stuff. Blackstone which is the largest private equity company in the world, founded by Steve Schwarzman who is another incredible inspiration to me.
Can you share with us some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome to get to where you are in life?
Wow, there have been so many... I think the biggest challenge has been to learn how to deal with the unknown and uncertainty.
Coming here from Sweden I had a dream of what I wanted to accomplish, but I had no clue how I was going to be able to make it into a reality. As a matter of fact, when I came here I didn't even how I was going to be able to legally stay in America. I just knew I would because I had no choice This was my dream.
When I came here I didn't know the country, I didn’t know the culture, and most importantly I didn't know any people but I didn’t let that stop me, instead I let it motivate me. If I can do this, I can do anything.
And it was just the same thing starting my business, I didn't know anything or anyone but I persisted and I figured out that you can learn anything you need to know and put together a team of people to make anything happen. So I think being able to set big goals and go for them wholeheartedly while at the same time being comfortable with not knowing what will be is an important lesson I've learned.
Like most others, I had to overcome all the challenges of entrepreneurship; lack of experience at first, finding partners, getting customers, raising capital. These all become more challenging when you go into business in a new country.
Follow Palmroth Group on Instagram: @palmrothgroup
