Blake Lapthorn, Barclays Real Estate, BDO LLP and Lambert Smith Hampton have jointly hosted the inaugural South Coast Real Estate Network event, at The Rose Bowl in Southampton.

The speaker for the inaugural Southern Real Estate event was John McCarthy MBE, who talked about the history of McCarthy & Stone, which is the largest builder of private retirement homes and flats in the UK, under his leadership.

As the subject of his book, Building a Billion, he spoke about his tussles with bankers and lawyers, planners and politicians, Government red tape and political autocracy.

Following Mr McCarthy's presentation, attendees had the opportunity to network with both existing and new contacts, and ask the speaker further questions.

More than 80 guests attended the inaugural event and included individuals from a wide variety of organisations including key real estate and property companies, banks, law firms, public sector organisations and other professionals.

Robin Nixon, Barclays Real Estate, said: "We were delighted to run this inaugural networking event in conjunction with the other firms and see such a high calibre of attendee.

"John McCarthy's presentation was both informative and insightful and we appreciate him taking the time to speak at the first of these quarterly networking events."