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The Private Market Club · privatemarketclub.com
N° 01  ·  Our story

Built from the inside out.

Twenty years in UK prime property. One conclusion: the best homes never reach the market.

Photograph of Lewis
Sandbanks, Dorset
Spring 2026
Lewis
Founder & Host  ·  The Private Market

I have spent the better part of two decades in and around the UK's prime property market — first as a marketer working with agents and developers along the South Coast, then as a founder building products at the intersection of property and technology.

In that time, one thing became impossible to ignore. The most interesting homes — the ones my clients actually wanted — were rarely the ones on Rightmove. They moved quietly: a word from an agent, a referral through a family office, a conversation at the right club. The public market, for all its reach, was showing most serious buyers the properties that hadn't already found a home through other means.

The problem was structural. Vendors with significant homes and significant lives do not always want their circumstances — a relocation, an estate settlement, a private bank requirement — advertised across a portal visited by three million people a month. They want a discreet introduction to the right buyer, handled correctly from the start.

"The market for the UK's finest homes has always been private. It simply never had a proper address — until now."

The Private Market is my attempt to give that address to the right people. It is not a portal. It is not an agency. It is a confidential club — small by design, rigorous in its membership, and built on the conviction that the right introduction, made discreetly to a verified buyer, is worth more to both sides of a transaction than any amount of public exposure.

We launched in Sandbanks and Canford Cliffs because that is the market I know best — one of the most valuable stretches of residential property outside London, and one where the appetite for private sale has always outrun the infrastructure to support it.

We are expanding carefully into prime central London, the Cotswolds, and beyond — adding markets only when we have the right agent relationships and the right buyer pool to serve them properly.

If you are here because someone sent you, you are likely already the right kind of member. If you found us by chance, we would like to have a conversation.

N° 03  ·  What we believe

Three principles that govern everything we do.

i.
Independence above all

We are not owned by an agency, a portal, or a fund. We act for neither side of a transaction. Our only interest is in the quality of the match — which is only possible when we have no financial stake in which property a buyer chooses.

ii.
Confidentiality as product

Discretion is not a feature at The Private Market. It is the reason the club exists. Every system, every process, and every decision is made with the question: does this protect the privacy of the people involved?

iii.
Small by intention

We will not grow the membership faster than our ability to serve it well. An introduction from the host carries weight precisely because it comes from someone who knows both sides of the room. Volume is not a goal here.

N° 04  ·  How we got here
2006
First role in prime property marketing
Early career working with estate agencies and developers across the South Coast. First contact with the world of discreet high-value transactions.
2014
Founded Headscratch — a property marketing agency
Built a specialist agency serving prime estate agents, luxury developers, and premium brands. Began working directly with clients in Sandbanks, Canford Cliffs, and the surrounding prime markets.
2022
Launched StreetVal — a property valuation platform
Built a technology product connecting UK homeowners with multiple estate agent valuations. Developed direct relationships with agents across the country, and a deep understanding of where the public market fails vendors.
2025
The Private Market — conceived
The idea formed from a simple observation: the best-connected agents in the country were managing off-market introductions via WhatsApp groups. The infrastructure was decades behind the market it served.
2026
Founding cohort — Sandbanks & Dorset
The club opens to its founding membership across Sandbanks, Canford Cliffs, Branksome Park, and the Dorset countryside. Forty buyer places and forty agency partnerships available in the founding cohort.

If this sounds like your kind of market, we would like to meet.

Apply for membership