Tim Garratt's Blog

I spent an evening last week as a guest of Lisa Pilkington of the Estates Gazette at the RICS east midlands dinner at The Belfry Hotel in Nottingham.

This was essentially an awards ceremony – celebrating great buildings in the region. The event was hosted by Lucy Kite and she announced winners:

The Building Conservation Award – Stoke Rochford Hall (refurbished after damage by fire)
Community Benefit Award – The Leicester Grammar School
Regeneration Award – The Roundhouse at Derby College
The Sustainability Award – The Branston Food Factory

These were the sector winners – but one goes forward to the national finals – and this was The Roundhouse.

It is a great building – which comprises a refurbished circular building (the clue was in the name) and a new teaching block. The original building was a rail shed built in 1839 – home to steam engines at one time. The scheme cost £43m – and was one that managed to get ahead of the LSC funding debacle. It is dedicated to vocational and Btec courses such as ICT, Construction, Engineering, Hair & Beauty, Art & Design & Catering & Hospitality. As part of the Hair & Beauty faculty, the Roundhouse incorporates the fully featured Sensi hairdressing salon.

It was a deserved winner.

It is good to see a Further Education College winning an award and having a really good campus. It is a pity so many colleges missed out. This was the second education building which had award winning status as I blogged about yesterday! I am sure NTU will be on the prize podium next year….

This morning my firm launched our third annual ‘insight’ into the state of the market – up to the end of 2009.

Over the next three days we will get around 500 people in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester to see the results of our research – which is not based on some theory, but rather real data. It is interpreted by people who work in the market day in day out.

So, what of the market-place?

According to Experian, “Despite prospects for UK annual average growth being well below its long-term average, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham may prove to have more resilience, thanks to their diverse services sector.”

Sadia Sheikh went on to say that tourism is important for Nottingham. We do need to capitalise on Robin Hood!

And, in the introduction by Managing Director, Robert Hartley, he said, “The view is that the next 12 months will remain difficult, with only weak economic growth and the inevitable election giving people ‘food for thought’. The prediction is for owner occupier markets to be challenging. However, there are the first signs of developers and house builders renewing interest in sensibly priced opportunities in a market that saw little activity in 2009.”

I blogged this week about Nottingham City Councils move to Loxley House and our research showed that this 213,000 sq ft acquisition skewed the figures in 2009 – accounting for nearly 50% of the office floorspace taken up!

As for rents in Nottingham:

Offices – prime rents have remained consistently at just shy of £20 psf
Industrial – prime have slipped back below £6 psf and are now at 2006 levels
Retail – High Street – prime have slipped back to around £225 Zone A – from a high of over £250
Retail – out of town – fairly flat for ope A1 use at around £30 psf

For more details of the figures – and of those for Derby & Leicester you can email me at the office – tgarratt@innes-england.com . I will happily send you a copy of the research.

The final speaker was Mark Chandler from Lloyds. He had some interesting figures – they lent more in Q4 2009 than they have ever lent! There was also an interesting nugget that the LTV (loan to value) is no longer the primary test for a commercial property loan. Lloyds are looking at affordability first – the ability to service the debt has become the primary consideration.

So my overall take – there has been a shift downwards, but we have fared much better as a City than some other places. We are well placed to take advantage of the upturn – which will surely come…

I have blogged before about my attendance at the MIPIM property show in Cannes.

Today the Evening Post have published a story that the City Council are pulling out of the show next year. This is primarily as a result of budgetary cuts. But they will be present this year – in fact Councillor Jon Collins and Planner Nigel Turpin are cycling there for charity!

The private sector are also going in the form of Mabers – Architects, Morgan Tucker – Engineers, Gleeds – Cost Consultants and my firm, Innes England. In fact we are all working together as ‘team Nottingham’.

Nottingham City Council will be announcing a really exciting ‘partnership’ at the event and will also be showcasing their six buildings which become vacant as they move to their new HQ at Loxley House, next to the Station. My firm will be explaining our market data analysis of the last year – compared to the preceding four.

It is a real opportunity for us to promote the city – and to try to create inward investment. There will be nay-sayers, as always who think it is a ‘jolly’. But, I will not be wrestling pigs!

It would not be right to categorically say that we are coming out of recession – but there are some signs of improving confidence – and it precisely for that reason that we should promote the city now. We will have a talented pool of people there – including the CEO of Nottingham City Council, The Leader of the Council – Jon Collins, the inward investment team and members of NRL. This is the public sector which forms the other key component of ‘team Nottingham’.

I think it is a pity (and perhaps short-sighted) that the City will not be principal sponsors and organisers next year. Before the ‘jolly’ spoilers start we should remember that our competitors for investment (Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester etc.) will all be there selling their wares to the world market.

The public sector and private sector both have roles to play in encouraging inward investment to Nottingham.

At the top of my blog is a link to a page about MIPIM.

As the year end approaches we start to plan for MIPIM2010. This will be my seventh visit to the International property show – held in Cannes on the Cote D’Azur.

The show has changed over the time I have been going – in the early days it was seen as something of a ‘reward’ and attracted large numbers of Surveyors who spent hours (days & nights) in Cafe Roma… But this year there was a change as many of the large firms cut back their exposure as the property market crashed. So the delegates were there for business – less in number and more focused. We, as a firm, have cut back our expenditure from the heady days of 2006/7!

My Partner Matt Hannah has always said he would rather do business in Blackpool, but I disagree. If we were in Blackpool people would pop back to the office or just do a day trip. The effort of getting to Cannes stops this. And the Cannes climate does add something critical (we have had always had good weather). Blackpool doesn’t have this sort of attraction (admittedly it was 1977 when I was last there!)

But I also think that there is also something of a microcosm in Cannes for the four days or so of the festival. People are focused and (iphone / blackberry permitting) in networking mode.

The ability to network in the surroundings of the Cote D’Azur is priceless. There are organised events – people vying for your attendance at Breakfasts, Lunches, Teas and Dinners means a fairly full diary! But there are also ad-hoc meetings – people will strike up a conversation with you. The ability to use a yacht for meetings with clients also does hold something of an attraction! Over the last few years the crew on board have been superb.

My firm are sponsors of Invest in Nottingham. We also support Derby Cityscape and Prospect Leicestershire. I will be there supporting Nottingham Regeneration Limited too. We are keen to use MIPIM as our shop window on the World – and encourage investment. The spin off is, potentially, work for my firm.

So, if you are attending let me know – we will be there from Tuesday 16th to Friday 19th March. I will be blogging from the show…

I am quite excited! After what seems like an eternity (ok about five weeks!), I have had my invite to join the testing group of Google Wave!

Problem is, I have no one to talk to, apart from my son Jack! I have sent out my invites to ‘like minded’ people and family – but Google won’t promise an early invite to them… Although he got his quickly!

Google Wave has been predicted as the end of email in its current form, and this may be the case. Generation Y are moving on; they think it’s boring. Hence the growth of twitter and facebook. Short sharp messages in SMS bursts (140 characters or less) are the order of the day.

The wave looks like this will address this issue with threads and multi-media. It will act as ‘normal email’ but relies more on a collaborative working style. I have to say that at the launch I thought the presentation given by the Google team was fairly dire! Ignoring the fact that it is 80 minutes loooooong! I guess I have become accustomed to the master of launches – Steve Jobs. Tips from his presentation have been recently published here – and are absolutely spot on. (I have tried to use his style in my own work – including in my presentation to the Sheriffs Commission here)

But I digress – the Wave is here… just waiting for the surfers!

I am at timgarrattnottingham@googlewave.com

Say hello if you are out there!

UPDATE 25.11.09

Friends and contacts joining the Wave – it is quite good fun! Some very clever features especially around the editing of messages – and watching people type!

At the East Midlands Property Dinner awards 2009 the firm was lucky enough to win ‘agent of the year 2009’ – presented by sponsors Invest in Nottingham.

The event was very good (we were in a good mood!) and was presented by compere Giles Brandreth. A good compere holds an audience and Giles did this brilliantly. His irreverent but topical comments were very good. And relevant.

It was at the end though that I thought he excelled.

After all of the celebrations he took two minutes to say something that struck home. The essence of the talk was that Dinners were more than just a boost of ego’s, but rather an opportunity to meet people. And that meeting of people (networking the marketers would have it) is critical to business. It is important that we know who we are dealing with, that we like them and we trust them. And the internet or emails (or even blogs!) cannot do that.

We are a social species and we rely on contact with other human beings.

I was reminded of a story I was told some time ago about a very large Insurance company who, once per month took all of the staff to a venue so they could talk to each other. They communicated all day, every day, but vie email. The company recognized that this was not always a good thing – and that ‘putting a face to a name’ was very important.

I was impressed with Giles ending poem:

From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There’s nothing worth the wear of winning,
But laughter and the love of friends

Business friends have a true place in our lives – and can make the difference between a menial job and one which is self-fulfilling.

Getting out of the office can be good for the soul!