Meet the real estate TV star heading to parts unknown

Billed as the Anthony Bourdain of property, Billy Nash’s new TV show aims to take buyers under the skin of destinations around the world.

- By Emma Magnus

“I can never walk past an oyster,” says Palm Beach real estate agent Billy Nash.

He has just slurped down two on the street outside Broadway Market's Fin and Flounder where he has come to get a feel for one of London’s biggest property boom zones. Despite having eschewed his usual Florida-friendly look — think blazers, pocket squares and pink shirts — 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.

Luckily, Nash is here with a native guide, Sunny Williams, the founder of Hackney-based fashion brand House of Sunny. 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.

“I love London,” he says. “There’s so much beautiful real estate — 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.” The intention is to stray away from well-trodden, super-prime Knightsbridge and Mayfair, and to give viewers a taste of what living in London might actually look like. “It’s not about blowing people away with the lifestyles of the rich and famous, or ‘look what I have and you don't,” says Nash. “It’s hearing people's stories — how did they end up here? What makes this place tick for them? What would it be like to live here?”

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 (“for God's sake, not today,” 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).