Welcome to the Team Anthony Calder
We are pleased to welcome Anthony Calder to DDRE Global.
Anthony Calder is a Prime and Super Prime residential advisor specialising in Central and West London, bringing over 15 years of experience and record-breaking performance to DDRE Global.
Anthony began his real estate career at 25 with a simple ambition in mind – to be a leading trustworthy advisor in the market. Fifteen years and over 1,000 letting transactions later, his vision hasn’t changed.
He joins DDRE Global to build his personal brand within a forward-thinking platform and to represent exceptional properties with greater visibility and impact.
What excites you most about joining DDRE Global?
I spent ten years in a big corporate. Great training, great platform, but at some point you realise the brand you're building is theirs, not yours.
The best agents I've ever met aren't employees. They're entrepreneurs who happen to sell houses. They build relationships, they build reputation, they build something that lasts beyond the next quarter's target.
That's why joining DDRE made sense. The platform is there, but so is the freedom to do it your own way and also you get to learn from industry leaders like Daniel.
What is one lesson you learned that still shapes how you work today?
Consistency.
The one thing I learned early that I've never let go of - show up the same way every time, and tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
In this business, everyone's friendly when the market's good. The relationships that actually last are built on the moments when you gave someone honest advice and it cost you the deal.
Clients remember that. They come back because of that.
What qualities make a truly great advisor?
People ask what separates a great advisor from a good one. For me it comes down to three things.
Trust - That's earned slowly and lost quickly. Every interaction either builds it or erodes it.
Honesty - even when it's uncomfortable. Especially when it's uncomfortable. The market doesn't care about your feelings, and neither does a motivated buyer.
And approachability - because none of the above matters if people don't feel they can pick up the phone to you at 7pm on a Friday when something goes wrong.
The best clients I've ever worked with chose me not because I had the biggest database or the flashiest brochure. They chose me because they trusted me to be straight with them.
ou live in the area you work in - how does that influence the way you advise your clients?
I've been fortunate enough to actually live in the areas I work in - Kensington, Belgravia, Fulham. That's not a line on a CV, it changes how you advise.
When a client is refurbishing a property and asks what finish to go for, I'm not guessing. I know what a tenant at that level expects when they walk through the door. I know what an end-user notices in the first thirty seconds.
And when someone's relocating and trying to understand the difference between a W8 street and a W14 street - the feel, the neighbours, the morning routine - I can tell them from experience, not from a brochure.
You can't really fake that knowledge. Either you've lived it or you haven't.
You have completed over 1,000 lettings transactions - what has that experience taught you?
Over a thousand lettings transactions teaches you one thing above everything else - a successful tenancy isn't about the headline rent or the speed of the deal. It's about getting to the end of it. Property returned clean, rent paid, no drama. That's the win.
It sounds simple. It isn't. And the only way you learn to spot the tenancy that's going to go wrong is by having seen enough of them go wrong.
I'll always tell a client if something doesn't feel right about an applicant. Even if it costs me the deal because the alternative is a landlord with a problem tenant, a legal dispute, and a property they have no rent coming in while they have a mortgage to pay.
The regulatory environment right now makes this even more critical. The legislation is getting more complex, the obligations on landlords are increasing, and the margin for error is shrinking.
In that environment, experience isn't a nice-to-have. An inexperienced agent who just wants to get the deal done is genuinely a liability. Your clients deserve better than that - and frankly, so do you.
What is something unexpected someone might not know about you?
I'm a serious horse racing fan.
Through my media work I've been fortunate enough to travel the world with the sport. Hong Kong, Bahrain, Cheltenham, Ascot - the major festivals, the big international meetings. It's taken me to rooms and relationships I'd never have found otherwise.
What racing taught me about property is probably more than people would expect. It's a world built entirely on trust, relationships and reading situations quickly. The best people in it - owners, trainers, the serious operators - they make decisions with incomplete information under pressure and they back their judgement.
When you are not working, how do you like to spend your time?
Following Sport is a big part of that and I've always preferred actually playing something over going to the gym. At the moment I am trying to learn how to play Tennis again as you can play in Holland Park for £10 an hour. There's something about a sport that demands your full attention that makes it genuinely good for clearing your head. I'm a big Arsenal fan - it's been 24 years of pain and I like to keep a close eye on the 2nd team Southampton (my fathers team) and Fulham (as I lived next door for 11 years). I don’t recommend following any of them.
Horse Racing is the other one, but that one blurs into work in the best possible way. Cheltenham, Ascot, the international meetings it’s the best day out in sport when the sun is shining and you have a winner by a nose.
What motivates you to consistently perform at a high level?
What motivates me is pretty simple — I want to be the person my clients think of first. Not occasionally.
That doesn't happen by accident. It happens through consistency. Showing up the same way on a quiet Tuesday in January as you do when the market's buzzing and everyone wants a piece of you.
My routine is straightforward. Be available. Return calls. Follow up when you say you will. It sounds basic because it is — and yet it's remarkable how few people actually do it without fail.
The other thing — and this is something a lot of agents are uncomfortable with — is asking for the business. Consistency, availability, and the willingness to ask. That's it. There's no secret beyond that.
After working in real estate for over a decade, what continues to excite you?
Walking into a property and knowing immediately. That feeling when you step through the door of an instruction and you already know exactly who it's for. You've got someone on your books — a tenant, a buyer — and within thirty seconds of being in that room you know it's theirs.
That match. That's the job at its absolute best.
It's not the commission. It's not hitting a target. It's the moment you call someone and say — I've got something you need to see — and you already know how that story ends.
Tell us a out Cleopatra - your beautiful ragdoll cat!
So my mother's advice growing up was always — never get a long haired cat. Too much maintenance.
I ignored her twice.
I'd had a Persian Chinchilla, and having decided to get a new cat three years ago— specifically one with blue eyes. A friend posted something on Instagram, I saw Cleopatra, and I tried very hard to talk myself out of it.
I failed. Best decision I ever made.
Ragdolls are something else. People think cats are aloof and independent — Cleopatra didn't get that memo. She's completely ridiculous. Hilarious. Follows me around the flat like a dog.
There's something quite grounding about coming home to a cat who has absolutely no interest in what the market is doing or whether you closed a deal today. She just wants her dinner and to sit on whatever you're trying to read.
My mother has since started calling Cleopatra her cat after she looked after her while I was refurbishing my flat last year.
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