I finished my A-levels and could have gone on to university. Instead, I chose to go straight to work, and I've been learning ever since.
By pure luck, I found my way into work as a sports agent, looking after cricketers. One of them went on to win two World Cups. I was young, but people said I was trustworthy, well spoken and could hold my own. Everything since has been learned the long way: on the job, in other people's homes, and by getting things wrong and putting them right.
Before there was ever a company, there were people. A couple buying their first flat. A family quietly outgrowing a terrace. Parents moving closer to the grandchildren. Nearly twenty years in property and finance have taught me that a move is rarely about the house. It's about the life that happens inside it.
My cousin Kapil and I have always been alike in the ways that matter. We both wanted to build an estate agency that was ethical, forward-thinking and truly independent: a small, boutique firm that treats every client the way we would want our own family treated. In 2017 we opened Black & Blanc together, and nearly ten years of hard work later, it's still the thing we're proudest of.
Pillar Finance came from the same conviction, after watching too many good moves come undone because nobody looked after the money early enough. Kapil and I co-founded it with Michael Snowdon, who leads it today as our Lead Broker.
None of it happened alone. Our teams, our families and every client who took a chance on two cousins with an idea are the reason we're still here, and I'm grateful to every one of them.
The running, the football, the photography and the fundraising all spring from the same instinct: that things are better done together, done properly, and done close to home. And that when you're in a position to give something back, you should.
Family comes first. It's the reason I hold myself, and our teams, to a higher standard every day.
The principles I try to live and work by. I won't always meet them, but they are the standard I hold myself to.
Everything I build is for the people waiting at home. A business that costs you your family has cost far too much.
An honest valuation serves you far better than a flattering one. Winning the instruction is not the same as achieving the sale.
So much of this work is simply keeping people informed. No one should ever have to chase us for news about their own home.
Growth matters, but never at the expense of the people who have already trusted us with their most valuable possession.
Finance belongs at the beginning of a move, not as an emergency halfway through.
I live between our two offices. We'll pass each other on the high street, so I always want to know I've done right by you.
Good people, well trained and genuinely trusted. As in any side, you are only as strong as the whole squad.
Charity is part of how I live, not a line on a website. Every mile run for a cause is a quiet reminder of how fortunate most of us are.
Running is a newfound passion. I took it up to stay fit, and it costs nothing but a pair of trainers. It's also where I think most clearly, and how I came to know these streets properly: not as postcodes, but as hills, shortcuts and familiar faces on the same loop.
It's also a full circle. At school I was in every athletics team, and on the football pitch I was usually the one with a yard of pace, whether on the wing, in midfield or at full back. Now I've joined Blackheath & Bromley Harriers, and most of my recent miles start on the track at Norman Park.
The best part was never the pace. It's the company.
Almost all of it on these streets, before work and after it. To know an area properly, you have to run it. Before long, every run will appear here on its own, set alongside the roads where Black & Blanc has a board up.
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Strava and Black & Blanc listings · Updates daily
In the summer of 2026 I started following a structured training plan. That was 15 weeks ago, and I haven't looked back.
Running is a newfound passion: the simplest way I know to stay fit, and it's free. It's become a shared thing at home, too. So here's what's next, out in the open, to keep me honest.
My first half marathon, and my first real test. Thirteen miles through the heart of London, from the Royal Parks to Trafalgar Square and back to Hyde Park. I ran for Action for Children, among thousands carrying causes of their own.
Giving back is a large part of who I am. When I run a race, I run it for someone else.
My first half marathon and first real test: The Royal Parks Half, London. Finished in 1:44:33.
Raising money for the children's hospital and the families it looks after.
If there's a local cause close to your heart, I'd like to hear about it.
Run ClubA free lunchtime run for every pace. Nobody is left behind, and you're back at your desk by half past one.
A lifelong Arsenal supporter. If we meet on a Monday, forgive me if the first five minutes are about the weekend's result. After twenty-two years of waiting, those Mondays have been very good lately.
As a player I was never a specialist. Wing, midfield, full back: wherever the side needed legs. A utility player, which, looking back, explains a lot about how I work.
Football has taught me most of what I know about building a team: choose good people, give them a clear system, and back them in public.
I care how things look and feel, whether it's a brand, a room or a photograph. Good design is a form of respect for the people who use it.
It's why the Beckenham flagship has arches, brass and shelves of design books rather than a counter and a leaflet rack.
The places I go when I'm not at the office. Say hello if you see me.
Every business I've started began the same way: with something that mattered to the people around me, and a quiet conviction that it could be done better.
The whyI opened the agency because I believed we could build something that changes how estate agents are seen, and how they operate. An agency people trust rather than tolerate: honest about value, open about the process, and genuinely on your side. Kapil and I started it together, independent from day one, so the only people we answer to are our clients.
We opened in Croydon in 2017. West Wickham followed in 2020, and in 2025 the Beckenham flagship: arches, brass, books, and a kettle that's always on.
Visit Black & Blanc ↗
The whyI understand the pain and pressure of facing big financial decisions with nobody to guide you. Pillar exists so that no one around me has to feel that way. Clear, honest advice on mortgages, insurance and protection, given early, so people know where they stand before they commit.
Mortgages, insurance and protection, arranged at the start of a move rather than rescued halfway through it.
Ask about Pillar ↓
The whyJoin the Run Club →We need a run club that genuinely welcomes anybody, from any walk of life. Not only the fast or the already fit, but the first-timer, the returning parent, the person who simply needs the company. This is that club, and it starts on the high street where we work.
Written down, out in the open, so we keep ourselves honest. None of it is done yet, and all of it depends on earning people's trust one move at a time.
In January 2027, Kapil and I celebrate ten years of Black & Blanc. We started with a simple idea: an agency that feels local because it is. Our aim, before our twelfth anniversary in January 2029, is to become the outright market leader in Beckenham and West Wickham, and in all the places between and around them: Park Langley, Eden Park, Elmers End, Shortlands, Hayes, Coney Hall, Clock House, Kent House and Langley Park.
After that, the longer road: to become the biggest estate agency across the BR postcodes. We'd rather get there slowly and properly than quickly and carelessly.
Banks have been closing branches across the country, and with them goes the chance to sit down with someone local and talk through the biggest financial decision most people make. So we opened Pillar Finance on the high street, in our Beckenham and West Wickham offices.
Today Pillar arranges around one mortgage a day for local clients. Our aim is two a day. My business partner and Lead Broker, Michael Snowdon, is building the team to get there, without losing the time and care each client deserves.
Pillar Finance Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for pure protection, residential mortgages and general insurance business. FCA number 1010639. We do not charge a fee for residential mortgage advice. Although Pillar Finance is regulated by the FCA, commercial mortgages and most buy-to-let and offshore mortgages are not. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Running is a newfound passion: it keeps me fit, it's free, and it has given me more than I expected. One day I'd like to run a marathon in under three hours. Not in London, but somewhere, someday. And before I turn fifty, I'd like to have run every one of the World Marathon Majors.
I'll update this page as we go, the progress and the setbacks.
Kunal
hello@kunaltrehan.com
Find me on the high street
Black & Blanc, 240 High Street, Beckenham BR3 1EN
Black & Blanc, 107 High Street, West Wickham BR4 0LT
Hello. Ask me anything about moving, mortgages, letting or the area. I read every message myself.
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