Property+Padel – a Perfect Partnership for the Post-Pandemic Era?

7 min

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When Chartered Surveyor Rohit Grewal got talking to The Padel PR, Ben Nichols in the salubrious surroundings of Hexagon Cup’s Business of Padel garden party in Wimbledon earlier this summer, he saw the perfect opportunity to merge two career trajectories to fill a void that needed filling. With the UK fast becoming the unfortunate poster child for stringent planning permission regulations, emerging padel fan Grewal knew that padel operators needed to work with, not against, the Public Authorities if Britain was to fulfill its padel potential. If the reality is one day to match the hype around the sport. Nichols agreed. The slower-than-expected speed of growth for the UK’s padel market was, in large part, down to planning authorities and would-be padel operators butting heads and neither party “getting it”. And so, a solution was born: Padel+Property, which launches its debut event at London’s Padium this Wednesday. Cage 91 Co. meets the dynamic duo seeking to give much-needed stimulus to the slowly-as-she-goes UK padel industry.

It might be a bit too gushing to call it a ‘sliding doors moment’, but when 27-year-old Rohit Grewal met 40-year-old Ben Nichols at a recent padel business industry event just a few hundred yards from the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in July, it swiftly felt like a meeting of minds. 

In Grewal, here was an ambitious young chartered surveyor, with a zest for padel and passion for growing the sport, and in Nichols, what many consider the world’s leading Padel PR professional who, in his daily interactions with would-be padel operators, knew only too well about the hurdles facing them in the UK. “Quite simply, land availability and planning permission” he tells us. It wasn’t long before Grewal, having expressed his passion for padel, expressed to Nichols his thoughts on the need for the property and padel industries “to get under one roof together, to understand each other better and to do business together”. Sounds simple, right? Well, until now it hasn’t been. It fact, it has been the biggest friction for impatient entrepreneurs, operators and [padel] business builders. For the real estate sector, padel has been little more than a footnote in their long list of demands and requests from business owners across all sectors. Education on padel, to those in the public authorities has, it would be fair to say, been, at best, limited. That needed to change, on that Grewal and Nichols were united. How, was the most pressing question. A question best answered, they agreed, by establishing a B2B event to get property entrepreneurs, public authorities and padel operators in a room to thrash it out. And so, Property+Padel was born.

The London Debut

Days later and Grewal and Nichols got to work, establishing a core purpose which, in their own words can best be described as ensuring padel people can meet the right land owners and navigate strict planning laws, so that the real estate sector can fully understand the opportunity padel provides them in a much-changed post-pandemic environment, and, finally, so that public authorities can “get padel” and comprehend just what a positive opportunity it can offer their communities. 

With the obligatory brand and social media channels developed, Grewal and Nichols set about securing London’s premium and widely considered No.1 padel venue Padium as the host of the first Property+Padel event. What better optics, they considered, than an event aimed at uniting the property and padel sectors and the commercial potential such a get together could generate, than under the towering sky scrapers of London’s modern financial home, Canary Wharf. When the event debuts on 9th October, it will, as Nichols puts it “be the perfect visual representation of what this is all about – opportunity, opportunity and opportunity”. 

The Property+Padel London event promises to be a significant gathering at the intersection of the property and padel industries. The event will kick off with a Padel Mix-In led by Padium’s Head Coach, Jorge Martinez, setting the tone for a day of dynamic discussions and networking. Attendees will gain insights from a panel featuring industry leaders including Houman Ashrafzadeh, Founder & CEO of Padium, and representatives from major real estate firms, as they explore the burgeoning opportunities that padel presents to the UK real estate sector. The event will also highlight innovative technology, with a presentation from Searchland on how data-driven platforms can revolutionize site acquisition for padel operators. Further sessions will delve into the UK’s planning system, offering a balanced perspective on its impact on padel development, complemented by insights from Sweden’s market. A special interview with Alan Flatt, a key figure in America’s padel investment scene, will provide a transatlantic comparison, rounding out a day focused on forging closer ties between property and padel. Expect key players from real estate, sports, and investment sectors to be in attendance, making it an unparalleled opportunity for networking and collaboration.

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Next Stop New York?

Swiftly seeing the demand for the invite-only London event, the two Property+Padel founders realised that it would be nonsensical to limit their event to a London audience and London audience alone. For Nichols, whose attention with his Communications and Marketing Company, Padel 22, is ever-increasingly on the growing American market, he realised that the UK was not alone in its “planning issues.” While the United States takes a state-by-state approach to permitting (as it’s typically framed there), there are states, not least New York, where similar issues [to the UK] persist—something Nichols saw firsthand on a recent tour of padel clubs on the East Coast. “With the UK two years ahead of the US in terms of its padel journey, I believe all of us early adopters in this industry need to do what we can to help ease padel’s passage into the mainstream. What can we learn from the challenges would-be operators in the UK have faced, and what education can be provided in the US to ensure there are fewer sticking points? We all surely want padel to succeed without friction, and the first steps are communication, education, and connection. That, in three words, is ultimately what Property+Padel is all about. With Nichols’ connections and Grewal’s vision, this entrepreneurial duo feel that the US northeast would be the perfect place for the next stop, especially given the competitive market on the Eastern seaboard.

The Long term Vision

So, what’s the long-term vision with Property+Padel? And will there come a time when such an event series—or a “brand,” as Grewal and Nichols are insistent on reminding us—will no longer be needed?

“I don’t see such a time for many years, decades even,” said Nichols. “We are at the very beginning of padel’s journey in the emerging padel territories—the New Padel World, as I like to term it—and outside of the padel bubble, it will take years for key stakeholders, such as the real estate sector, councils, and public authorities, to truly understand the benefits and appeal of padel, and why it is good for them, their businesses, and their constituents,” he added.

From Grewal’s perspective, there is an equal need for the padel sector to understand how planning works in the UK and indeed in other countries. “We have to deal with the reality of the system as it is, not as we might like it as padel builders,” he said. “Understanding the intricacies of planning regulations and the ways in which we can align with local and national priorities will be crucial in driving the growth of padel.”

As Grewal and Nichols continue to push the boundaries of what Property+Padel can achieve, their vision remains clear: to bridge the gap between the evolving world of padel and the complex frameworks within which it must operate. “We’re not just building courts; we’re building a community and a movement that will bring lasting value to the cities and countries we enter,” Grewal concluded. “This is only the beginning, and we’re excited to see where this journey takes us.”

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