Rupert Bates does lunch with Zinzan Brooke

Rupert Bates does lunch with Zinzan Brooke of Valentines Homes to talk about property and rugby.
Zinzan Brooke is best known in his native New Zealand as a plumber and gas fitter. Only kidding. Mention his name from the Bay of Islands to Invercargill and be prepared to talk rugby from dawn until dusk.

Brooke, from Auckland, is one of the greatest rugby players of all time, winning 58 caps for the All Blacks between 1987 and 1997, scoring 17 tries.

Before he became a rugby legend, Brooke, whose grandfather owned a timber mill, was in the property game. His family are in the building trade from the tip of their boots to the peaks of their hard hats, including brothers Robin, who also played for the All Blacks, and is a site foreman and project manager back in New Zealand and Simon, a carpenter by profession who works with Zinzan in Windsor, Berkshire.

The royal town of Windsor, with apologies to Her Majesty in the castle, is very much Brooke’s home ground, with the former New Zealand number eight now the purveyor of fine Home Counties apartments as chief executive of Valentines Homes. One of his projects is called Sora in Windsor, with the eight stylish two-bedroom apartments for sale from between £325,000 and £349,000. Watch the development video and Brooke is scoring a try for New Zealand on the plasma TV screen.

In Watford, Valentines Homes has 24 flats at a development called North West. They are tenanted but available for sale to investors looking for good rental yields. These high-spec apartments are available from £140,000 to £275,000.

“Our work is a mix of renovation and new build,” said Brooke, with Valentines Homes a £12 million turnover business, with developments to its name in Windsor, Watford, Chesham and Rickmansworth.

Plenty of Show House readers are keen rugby followers, but for those who are not it is worth stressing just how obsessed New Zealand is about rugby. It is the national sport. New Zealand’s economy swings on its rugby results and questions are asked in parliament on the rare occasions - usually World Cups - the All Blacks lose. Current New Zealand rugby stars Dan Carter and Richie McCaw are the country’s biggest celebrities.

‘Zinny’ has signed more autographs than any other plumber in the world, as stunned kitchen fitters and other suppliers bump into the great man on building jobs.

While even famous rugby forwards, so talented they can kick amazing drop goals in World Cup semi-finals against England god damn them, are not immune from the property meltdown, Brooke is no upstart property developer simply trading on his sporting profile. Brooke has bags of experience of both the business of building and boom-bust cycles both at home in New Zealand and in the UK.

In the 1987 New Zealand crash, Brooke and another brother Martin were both working for the same Auckland building firm and were asked to go part-time. “Martin, who had a house and mortgage, could not afford to, so I left instead as it was the 1987 World Cup and I got a bit of work through rugby,” said Brooke.

Ah the 1987 Rugby World Cup. New Zealand won the inaugural World Cup on home soil in Auckland.

“Yes I know, before you remind me, New Zealand haven’t won it since. But I am still convinced we were victims of food poisoning in South Africa 1995 before the World Cup final against the Springboks,” said Brooke. Oh come on, you are not still trotting out that old excuse?

“Seriously it is not sour grapes. I still swear to this day that it is was food poisoning, making many of us really lethargic during the final,” said Brooke, confidently tucking into fish and chips at Windsor’s Bel and The Dragon restaurant.

I had suggested there were some seriously good South African and Australian wines on the list, but for some reason - it might have been the way Brooke’s eyes were narrowing as if preparing for the Haka against England - I conceded defeat and we plumped for a sauvignon blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. When it comes to rugby and wine don’t mess with a Kiwi.

Brooke was just 21 when he made his All Blacks debut. A young sporting star in New Zealand, but the number eight barely had eight dollars to his name. He did some promotional work for Dominion Breweries and considered a lucrative rugby move to the Lazio club in Rome.

However he stayed in New Zealand and having built his own home aged 23, he took some equity out of it and invested in buy-to-lets in Auckland.

“I even read a book all about making money in residential property,” said Brooke, acutely aware it was never going to be a one-way street. He then bought a “mongrel of a house” in Auckland with his wife Ali. “We bought it for around NZ$125,000 and spent $60,000 on it, before selling it for $360,000.”

Brooke picked up properties at the bottom of the market, leveraging as he went. “At one time I had around 27 properties. I did building work on some of them. My trick was to go for quick settlements and therefore negotiate hard on purchase price.”

Brooke is terrific value as a lunch companion, mixing sporting and property gossip, while leafing through Show House magazine, making a note to contact several of the suppliers advertising their wares.

“This magazine is so relevant to the trade,” said Brooke. He’ll say anything for another glass of Villa Maria Clifford Bay Reserve.

Over the years Brooke has sold many Auckland properties and held onto a few and so far has mostly called the market right. With the UK market on its knees he is keeping his powder dry and his options open, mixing sales with rentals.

In 1997 Brooke moved to England to join Harlequins rugby club in London as a player and coach and found his property negotiating skills worked here too, as he got around £50,000 knocked off the purchase price of his house in Richmond. He now lives in Windsor and his latest project is restoring a ten-bedroom bed & breakfast called Frances Lodge in the town.

“I did some research on occupancy rates in the area and they are around 90 per cent. I want to make it a bespoke, chic B&B, offering really wholesome, healthy foods and probably with a New Zealand chef,” said Brooke.

The sign above the door will not read ‘cook me some eggs bitch’ in homage to the infamous line in that iconic New Zealand Maori gang culture film Once Were Warriors.
Brooke is a rugby warrior, turned property warrior, and another venture he has just launched is a labour hire business, appropriately enough called No 8 Recruitment for labourers, carpenters, bricklayers and quantity surveyors.

Brooke has helped out England rugby forward James Haskell with some back-row tips. At the other end of the scale on Sunday morning Brooke, who has four children, coaches Windsor Under 7s. He also helped former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick build his house near Windsor and both Brooke and Fitzpatrick are regular rugby pundits on Sky Sports.

The next day following our lunch Brooke was shooting in Devon. Rugby, a good bottle of wine and unloading a few barrels at pheasants - Brooke may have been a one-off talent on the rugby field, but he is a thoroughly typical property professional, carving out a second career at the top of his game.

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