{"id":177588,"date":"2025-06-12T05:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T05:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/177588\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T05:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T05:35:13","slug":"meet-the-palm-beach-real-estate-star-taking-on-the-london-property-market-for-new-tv-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/177588\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Palm Beach real estate star taking on the London property market for new TV show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Homes<\/p>\n

I can never walk past an oyster,\u201d says Palm Beach real estate agent Billy Nash. He has just slurped down two on the street outside Broadway Market\u2019s Fin and Flounder where he has come to get a feel for one of London\u2019s biggest property boom zones. Despite having eschewed his usual Florida-friendly look \u2014 think blazers, pocket squares and pink shirts \u2014 in favour of a black T-shirt, khaki chinos and sneakers, Nash is still something of a fish out of water here. His clothes are a little too box fresh, his teeth too gleamingly American for hipster Hackney.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Nash is here with a native guide, Sunny Williams, the founder of Hackney-based fashion brand House of Sunny<\/a>. He is producing, and presenting, a new property TV programme, Passport Properties, and is visiting London for one of the episodes in the first series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love London,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much beautiful real estate \u2014 all these small sections of London that used to be villages. When I started to plan the show, I knew that London would 100 per cent be on the radar for an episode.\u201d The intention is to stray away from well-trodden, super-prime Knightsbridge<\/a> and Mayfair, and to give viewers a taste of what living in London might actually look like. \u201cIt\u2019s not about blowing people away with the lifestyles of the rich and famous, or \u2018look what I have and you don\u2019t\u2019,\u201d says Nash. \u201cIt\u2019s hearing people\u2019s stories \u2014 how did they end up here? What makes this place tick for them? What would it be like to live here?\u201d <\/p>\n

Not everyone on Broadway Market is on board. A small crowd has gathered around Nash and his crew. Some are curious about the programme, some want to get past (\u201cfor God\u2019s sake, not today,\u201d says one man) and some are just waiting to buy their fresh fish. A drunken man watches, flicking pieces of stale croissant onto the ground (the decision is made not to include him in the shot).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Property and TV star Billy Nash, right, with House of Sunny founder Sunny Williams<\/p>\n

Supplied<\/p>\n

Unfazed, Nash gets stuck into a chat with the two fishmongers in their yellow aprons and wellies gamely telling him about how the oysters are grown in Maldon in Essex. \u201cI think that\u2019s what makes this area so special: you have multiple mom-and-pop shops that have been here for years, serving the community. You\u2019ve got the oyster king right here,\u201d he gestures to the fishmonger, and then to Williams. \u201cAnd the fashion king right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier today, they were filming at Williams\u2019s newly renovated Camden<\/a> mews house; yesterday, they visited a warehouse conversion near Vauxhall. Tomorrow is an \u00a311\u2009million home in Belgravia. The cultural life of the city is also up for exploration with a visit to Richard Young\u2019s gallery, dinner at Sune in Hackney and even a good old-fashioned east London<\/a> boozer.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sunny Williams\u2019s newly-renovated Camden mews home<\/p>\n

Ian Tillotson<\/p>\n

With Passport Properties, the underlying hope for Nash is that it will advertise European property and lifestyle to American buyers \u2014 and steer them towards him as an agent. Last year, US buyers accounted for 9.3 per cent of all sales in prime central London, according to Knight Frank, making them the biggest group of overseas buyers. \u201cIf you\u2019re thinking about buying a second home somewhere around the world and you watch this show, it will help educate you on the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wall Street to Palm Beach <\/p>\n

Nash himself had a modest upbringing in New Jersey, before working as a trader on Wall Street for 22 years. He was at Bear Stearns during the 2008 financial crash; after its collapse, he moved into the world of luxury real estate. He has been a broker with the Palm Beach-based firm Keyes-Forbes Global Properties for the past decade, selling trophy homes in the US and abroad.<\/p>\n

Passport Properties is his second foray into property TV. In 2018, he hosted season three of Selling Mega Mansions, which is set in the Palm Beaches. He also has a podcast, Luxury Real Estate with Billy Nash. Both, he says, have led to lucrative new clients. He still gets enquiries from Selling Mega Mansions seven years on; one Californian woman who wanted to buy in the area has now completed three transactions with him, worth $30\u2009million (\u00a322.1m). <\/p>\n

For agents, particularly at a super-prime level, TV appearances offer exposure, clients and sales. For estate agent Joshua Marks, for example, who is selling an \u00a380\u2009million Knightsbridge penthouse which features on Channel 4\u2019s Britain\u2019s Most Expensive Houses, the motivation to appear on the programme was simple: \u201cWe thought that it would be good publicity.\u201d Likewise, within a month of starring in Buying London, DDRE Global founder Daniel Daggers says that the company\u2019s daily enquiries jumped fivefold, website views hit 1.8\u2009million and \u201cinbound leads\u201d topped \u00a3400\u2009million. \u201cNo one trusts strangers. Netflix allowed us to be a familiar brand to millions of people,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

This show isn\u2019t about drama. There are no purple Lamborghinis. It\u2019s authentic and these are real stories<\/p>\n

Billy Nash<\/p>\n

But Nash is adamant that Passport Properties is not another drama-filled Selling Sunset or Buying London. \u201cIt\u2019s fake, right? Everybody is wearing costumes \u2014 I would never walk into a property with somebody dressed like that. It\u2019s not how this business works. I think those shows give a bad name to the real estate industry. That motivated me to show the real side of real estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis show isn\u2019t about any kind of drama. It\u2019s not about commissions. There are no purple Lamborghinis. We\u2019re the opposite of those shows,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt\u2019s authentic, and these are real stories. There\u2019s no script.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Billy Nash with photographer Richard Young at his gallery<\/p>\n

Supplied<\/p>\n

Passport Properties has the same sound and music team as Anthony Bourdain\u2019s Parts Unknown. This has invited comparison \u2014 something that Nash seems to simultaneously welcome and refute. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to emulate Anthony Bourdain, because he was a genius,\u201d he says. \u201cThe ultimate goal is that if he were still here today and he watched Passport Properties, he would say: \u2018Nash is cool, I want to grab a beer with him.\u2019 And maybe a shot of whisky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond London, Nash will travel to Croatia, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, fusing travel, food, culture and history with property. Nash has chosen these locations and properties himself. Partly, this is because they are hotspots for Americans buying second homes in Europe. \u201cIt\u2019s also for the dreamer, right?\u201d he says. \u201cThis is cinematic. It\u2019s beautiful. It tells a story. It showcases incredible real estate. But it really captures the soul and the community \u2014 what\u2019s beyond the walls of a property.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the footsteps of Mona Lisa <\/p>\n

The line-up includes a 700-year-old villa outside Florence which was home to the real-life Mona Lisa, and a 14th-century monastery where its owners discovered beautiful frescoes hidden beneath the walls. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The 700-year-old villa outside Florence which was home to the real-life Mona Lisa<\/p>\n

Supplied<\/p>\n

There\u2019s former NBA player Tony Parker\u2019s chateau near Avignon, which was once the Pope\u2019s guesthouse and features a secret underground tunnel leading to the Palais de Papes. <\/p>\n

And in Ronda, Spain, Nash visited the family home of the Ord\u00f3\u00f1ez bullfighting dynasty, where Hemingway came to write and where his typewriter is displayed on the wall. The actor and filmmaker Orson Welles\u2019s ashes are scattered outside. What does Nash take from it all? \u201cThe world is smaller than we think. You don\u2019t need to speak the same language to feel at home. That\u2019s the sense of community that I feel when I visit properties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next week, Nash is off to Scotland. After that, Split, Dubrovnik, Puglia and Sardinia await. Passport Properties will premiere in October at entertainment festival MIPCOM Cannes, with network and global distribution to be revealed afterwards. Nash is already eyeing up season two. \u201cThere\u2019s so many places to explore,\u201d he says. \u201cEngland\u2019s huge. I want to come back and do the Cotswolds, do York, do Wales. The storylines are endless.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I can never walk past an oyster,\u201d says Palm Beach real estate agent Billy Nash. He has just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,28057,10391,393,4884,57953,257,73298,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-177588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-camden","10":"tag-east-london","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-knightsbridge","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-london-property","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114668773777642576","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}