Tag Archives: Innes England

Mar 27 2012

The Estates Gazette Awards 2012

My firm like winning awards – it’s a great accolade. So, it’s that time of year again when I would love you to vote for us. We have been nominated as Estates Gazette East Midlands Property Adviser of the Year again. But some of our pesky competitors have too.

It even makes the MD smile!

So this is a shameless plug for us. Apologies up front!

It’s really easy to vote – all you have to do is click here. Then scroll down to the ‘East Midlands’ and select ‘Innes England’ under the ‘Property adviser’ tab. Voting ends on 5 April.

Thanks if you do vote – it really is appreciated. This is the most important award of the year; it’s voted for by our clients and contacts. We can’t vote for ourselves (if we could obviously we would!).

Mar 5 2012

MIPIM 2012 – starting tomorrow

I can’t quite believe where the last 12 months went! It seems like 5 minutes since I was at MIPIM 2011. I also can’t quite believe that I was ‘elected’ to run Team Nottingham for the second year running. Next year I am not sure it is my turn again!

Team Nottingham are made up this year of 8 firms – Innes England (my firm), Gleeds, CPW, cpmg, Miller Birch, Geldards, Morgan Tucker and Rizc McCay.

And some of them are MIPIM ‘virgins’. I have been asked over the last couple of weeks for some helpful hints, so in the spirit of trying to be helpful…

1. Shoes – don’t wear new shoes. MIPIM is not the place to break them in. Your feet take a battering.

2. Sleep – get as much as you can – the days are long – breakfast meetings through to dinners. Bar Romma serve until everyone goes home (usually around 6am allegedly)

3. Water. You need to consume it as often as possible, together with caffeine. Alcohol is plentiful and it is not unusual for event staff to thrust champagne and bacon sandwiches at you before 9am. Liver damage is a hazard.

4. Sun and cold. In the last 8 years I have only seen sunshine, but the evenings get quite cold – so it’s quite easy to get a chill. A jumper is useful.

5. Money. It is eye-wateringly expensive. Beer is around 7 euros a bottle. We pay so they sell. Nothing is cheap in Cannes – if you are feeling really flush venture into the Louis Vuitton shop – where there are no prices…

6. Kebabs. It is possible to get canapé sickness. A real cure is a kebab – there are several shops that stay open ‘all hours’. This is highly nutritional and healthy food. And a welcome respite from this little scraps of food!

So that’s it really – a pretty easy week of breakfasts, lunches, dinners, meetings and networking events. And back home for a rest at the weekend!

Feb 27 2012

Win win win

It was a good day on Friday last week.

My firm won a prestigious award from the Estates Gazette. We were named the “Most Active Agent 2011” – for the East Midlands. This was fantastic news on tow fronts. Firstly we are an East Midlands based firm – this is our patch (we have offices in Leicester, Derby and Nottingham). Secondly, this was the fifth year running we have won this award.

As well as the overall award we were top in the categories of Office and Investment deals. We acquired or disposed of nearly 500,000 sq ft of offices last year.

We live to do deals, so being recognised for this award makes us like pigs in muck – especially in the current climate. And to carry it off for 5 years in succession is pretty amazing!

But I also was very happy as I won a magnum of champagne! Coincidentally this was from the Estates Gazette too. I never win anything, but had completed a survey about the state of the uK’s retail sector – and was drawn out of a hat! I found out by twitter that I had won.

So the question is – should I share my Champagne with my dealer colleagues who have done brilliantly? I have carefully thought this through and have decided that I would like to. But I’m not going to…

I am now wondering if I should have bought a lottery ticket!

Feb 13 2012

The Nottingham Office Review 2011

It’s obviously that time of year when we look back at the previous year – in an effort to make sense of what is going on in our market.

The assembled participants - and me enjoying myself despite the fact is was before 8am...

The Nottingham Office Review is a collaborative document which is drawn together by CoStar – but takes information from all of the key Nottingham Agents. they then try to analyse what has happened in the local market.

This years review can be found here.

It was my colleague Craig Straw who presented the findings on behalf of the Forum assembled. I don’t need to replicate the report – but it is fair to say that Nottingham held its own last year. The number of deals were reduced but what did happen made for an ‘ok’ year. We have certainly done better than Birmingham which has a near 20% vacancy rate – against our approximate 13%

We have nearly 2.3m sq ft of offices in the pipeline – which should hold us in good place for future occupiers.

But in the meantime what I did like were the reasons to look at the City – I am happy to cut and paste…

* 8th largest recruitment catchment in the UK
* Over 1.1 million people in the journey to work area
* Over 98% of the UK market within a 4 hour drive of the city
* Access to 55,000 students studying at Nottingham’s two universities
*Home to global businesses including Capital One, Experian, Alliance Boots, Speedo and E.On
* A leading Science City in the UK with research excellence in BioSciences, Low Carbon Technologies and Digital Media
* Cutting edge global digital infrastructure
* Award winning integrated transport network with two new tram lines under construction
* Top 6 retail destination
* The UK’s most energy self-sufficient city

Jan 18 2012

The East Midlands Market 2007-2011

Although the Title looks like an obituary, it’s not! Today my firm launch our annual review of the property market across the East Midlands. Today we hit Nottingham, tomorrow is Derby’s turn then we turn our attention to Leicester. We expect to meet around 750 of the regions property folk over the next few days.

We are uniquely placed, having an office in each of the regions major Cities (are you still allowed to say ‘regions’ I wonder). We trade in and report on commercial property across the golden triangle that is centred on Nottingham, Derby & Leicester. It’s my day job.

For the 5 years we have been monitoring the markets – to see if we can spot trends…

Our general view was that 2011 started well but then slipped back during the summer months. It looked like the market was coming back, but the second half of the year was disappointing. We remain optimistic though for 2012 – interest rates are low and inflation looks like is it beginning to fall. We need confidence to come back. The Euro needs to stabilise.

The 2011 key messages from our three offices were…

Derby – a robust reaction to the Bombardier Thameslink fiasco was balanced by a successful £40m Regional Growth Fund bid. Office take up was at its lowest level for the last 5 years. Fortunately Hero TSC took 68,000 sq ft in the last few weeks of the year.

Leicester – keeps delivering positive take up figures across all sectors. The MIRA Technology Park being a notable addition. The Passiv Haus at Raynsway Properties Watermead development (I blogged about it here) was a high point. Office take up was at its highest for 5 years!In addition 2.2m sq ft of Industrial space was shifted – a 10 year high.

Nottingham – the office market take up was marginally ahead of the 10 year average for the third year running. It was down very slightly on last year, but 566,000 sq ft was let or sold. Industrial take up was slightly up on the 2010 figure – but lower than the 10 year average.

If you would like a copy of the report – let me know via the comments section – and leave me your email address, I’ll email you a copy in PDF format.

Dec 13 2011

It’s budget time….

It’s that fun time of year when we set our budgets for next year. We now have our results for 11 months of 2011 and they were pretty good despite a poor market. It’s my Boards Away Day today…

Budgeting for next year is going to be a whole different ball game. Has anyone any idea what is going on in the World?

I blogged about retailing yesterday – and judging by Christmas shopping experience at the weekend – they are not going to have a great time. There are lots of vacant shops in Nottingham, estimated to be 15%, but I think it is more. We have 2.3m square feet of offices vacant in the east midlands main towns – Nottingham, Leicester and Derby. That figure is likely to worsen as Local Authorities downsize. Industrial properties are probably holding their own due to the relative equilibrium of supply and demand.

These sectors provide us with work. We buy, sell, lease, survey and value this stuff. Lack of transactions hits the business hard. Our professional services are critical in these times – Building Surveying and Management teams are always busy. Our Rating team is too – as they try to get down liabilities. We have seen an upturn in work looking at Service Charges – where people are scrutinising Landlords charges – I have just saved someone £10,000 through technical errors in demands.

The lack of confidence is going to be a big part of 2012. It’s not all about big new deals. We rely on ‘churn’. Even downsizing generates work! People sitting on their hands doesn’t. We have plenty of people doing just that.

So, I need to somehow, come up with some figures to tell my Partners where I think the billing will be at over the next year. I’m not enjoying thinking about it. The only thing that makes me feel better is that they too will be scratching their heads…

Nov 14 2011

The property market – what is going on?

It is a question I get asked a lot. And the honest answer is that I don’t know. Three years ago when the world imploded we thought were in for a tough couple of years. I’m not sure much has changed in those three years. Worryingly, I can’t see much around me that makes me think it is going to change soon.

The Eurozone crisis is not helping, nor is the prospect of strike action in the UK by the Unison Union later this month. The overall feel good factor is quite the opposite?

The stark reality at the moment is that markets are driven by sentiment, rather than results. What happened before might not be an indication as to what might happen tomorrow. We have a new world order. Sentiment is at a low ebb. The mornings and nights are dark and in some way that’s a reflection of the market. A dark place.

And yet – here’s an odd thing – we aren’t on suicide watch. Actually I think we are as busy as we have ever been. One of my competitors asked a few people last week whether they had noticed a pick up after a ‘quiet summer’ He had. Actually, looking back, I have had a busy year – it never slowed down. We are still in business and we are still making a profit. We still keep 65 people in full time employment and we try to do our little bit in promoting stuff.

It is hard work, but I have clients who are very active in the market – there are good deals to be had in all of this uncertainty. I have sold some stuff too – into different markets from the ‘norm’.

So, when I started to pen this blog post a few days ago, I did think it was a bit gloomy out there. I am not saying that it is booming – but perhaps it is a little less bad than we thought! (That’s a sort of positive!)

Roll on summer….

Sep 30 2011

Innes England – win win win!

Last night we were at the Insider East Midlands Property Dinner at Nottingham University. This has become the event in the property world annual calendar. With over 400 people from the East Midlands present it is an opportunity to meet lots of people – and celebrate the good things about our region.

the winning team (obviously not at sailing!)

We were also celebrating as we were announced as “Agent of the Year”. As you might expect we were just a little bit chuffed to have pipped FHP and JLL to the post…

And then earlier in the week I picked up my Estates Gazette. At this time of the year they publish their annual results survey – which used to be the Top 100 surveying firms. But, times have changed and it is now the Top 60. This is probably because lots of smaller firms have been swallowed up!

I was delighted to see my firm, Innes England, were at No.44. In a National League – we are pleased to be there.

But our real coup is that we got to the dizzy height of No.29 when we are judged on turnover per fee earner. This shows either that we all work really hard, or that we employ talented people – or both! Most firms have found in the last 12 months that they have had to earn more with less people…

The EG awards are Industry recognised and are important in our marketing strategy. That we beat our local rivals and competitor firms on both counts is great news. It is interesting though that firms are judged on turnover – and I always wonder if this is right. As I have said here before turnover is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king…

In the meantime we’ll settle for our new title of “Agent of the Year” and EG league table finish.

Onwards and upwards!!

Aug 1 2011

Is it always about the money?

I live in a pretty ‘full on’ commercial world. We aim to make money in business – otherwise there’s little point – we aren’t a social enterprise or a charity. We chase profit (remember turnover = vanity, profit = sanity) everyday.

But sometimes it’s not about the money. I need to earn enough fees to pay the rent and my staff – and hopefully have a bit left over to pay the mortgage and keep my wife and kids in gruel and water for a bit longer. But some of the things I do don’t attract a fee account. Some of the people I come across are more like business friends than fee paying customers.

But some of the people I come across don’t always get it. A few weeks ago I met someone who was so keen (desperate?) to do business that it became a blatant ‘if you show me your clients I will introduce you to some of mine’. It was mildly threatening as if I was going to miss out on ‘his client’ base if I didn’t come round to his way of thinking – and give him some work.

As someone said to me a couple of weeks ago, “he didn’t know how to be”. I love this expression and think it is very perceptive.

I think that there is an art to all of this. All of those people I know in my little network I regard as trustworthy. I figure that if I am nice to them and helpful, one day they may reciprocate. It’s not something I expect or ask for. It’s not a pre-condition. My experience is that people are more likely to business with you once they know you. That’s not to say I can do business with anyone – I can’t.

But sometimes the first bit shouldn’t be about the money – it’s about being yourself – or more fundamentally knowing “how to be”?

Jun 7 2011

Is bigger better?

Over the last few weeks the property industry has seen some big changes.

When I sold my soul in 1994!

At the weekend Property Week published its 2011 League Table (Innes England were delighted with 25th place ranked by turnover per fee earner) and next year will look different. Four of the big names have merged DTZ with BNP Parabis Real Estate and then last week JLL with King Sturge. The latter merger will create the biggest UK agency – with a turnover of £352m and a staff of 2,800. Previously Savills had been top of the tree with a turnover of £333mm. The DTZ / BNP merger gives the combined firms a turnover of £200m. These firms are big. Very big.

I was asked by Lisa Pilkington at the Estates gazette whether I thought this was a threat to my firm. My comments are on Lisa’s blog here.

We aren’t losing sleep. My firm are very happy and comfortable being based in the East Midlands. We have three offices with a pool of very talented people. The big firms have talented people too. And thats the point – commercial property consultancy is a people business. It’s the only asset we really have. Sure, we have computers and desks and nice offices – but ultimately we rely on the ability of our people to deliver results for clients.

I have worked in a large firm – three years at Savills plc was plenty! The big firms need to have layers of control – simply because they are big. They also have to answer to their shareholders. Shareholder sentiment is a fickle thing; if you aren’t travelling you have stopped – and shareholders then tend to turn their back. Clients tend to be removed from the process – in favour of chasing turnover.

My shareholders are my fellow Directors. We sit around a table each month – we are in it for the long term! We make quick decisions (good or bad).

So, I’m not sure whether bigger is better. It is harder to influence things in big firms. Mavericks give firms a personality, but there isn’t much space for ‘outliers’ in corporate structures.

Small is beautiful?