On the move Hampshire is at the start of another cycle of agents striking out on their own. What are the prospects? Stacey Meadwell reports
Agencies in Hampshire are going through a period of transition. Like the globules in a lava lamp, the small firms that broke away have, in the past five years or so, been slowly absorbed back into the big national companies, and now the process is starting again.
Some departures have been driven by economics, with companies trimming back staff as workloads have fallen, but others are because people are striking out on their own.
Michael Green, a partner at King Sturge’s Southampton office, comments: “All the major practices came down to Southampton in the last boom. Before that, it was just Chesterton and King Sturge. Everyone has taken costs out of their business, and that is a sensible, and sad and difficult, thing to do.”
Among those striking out from underneath the corporate umbrella is King Sturge partner Nik Cox, who is leaving to join the small Fareham-based practice Hughes Ellard. Cox will be tasked with building on the small presence the agent has in Southampton to service office and industrial clients.
Cox says: “I’m setting up a Southampton office on a larger scale. Having been at King Sturge for seven years, this is a bigger challenge and something new.”
Filling Cox’s shoes at King Sturge will be Jason Webb of Vail Williams, who is understood to be working out his three-month notice period.
Another well-known name to be making a move is Jeremy Braybrooke. He was one of the founders of niche practice Palmer Fry, which merged with Hampshire agent Goadsby in 2005.
Starting a business
A retail agent, he is setting up his own niche practice after leaving Goadsby this month. He says his tactic is stick to what he knows.
Some might think that starting or planning to expand a business in the middle of a recession is foolhardy. Those who are doing this, however, do not agree (see panel).
Gary Jeffries, managing director of Hughes Ellard, says: “We’ve been keen to beef up our Southampton presence, and Nik is a fantastic operator in a market that is so people driven. You have to be opportunistic when people become available. We’ve had some success in winning instructions, and need some extra bodies to service them.”
The key to progress for all firms, big or small, will be generating enough business, whether through advisory work or deals, until the market starts to pick up again.
Going it alone – starting out
Peter Hall worked at CB Richard Ellis for three years and, prior to that, traded as local firm Austin Adams before the firm was taken over by CBRE. After being made redundant from CBRE in March, he set up on his own, trading under the name Hall & Kirkwood.
He works partly from home and partly on site for clients, and also assists agents on specific projects when their resources are stretched.
How has business been so far? “It is a tough market, but there is work out there, and I have been pleasantly surprised that I have been able to fill my week,” he says. “I haven’t had to market myself, since I have been able to use my own contacts and word of mouth.”
Having worked for a large corporate, he has undergone significant cultural changes in the way he works, but he does not miss the environment at CBRE.
“Big firms are now being run by bean-counters,” he says. “With your own business, you are your own boss and, if you have confidence in your own ability, you just get on and do what you have got to do.”
Hall says that, being smaller, it will be easier to adapt as the market changes. “At the moment, my pitch is based on the fact that we are in a very tough market, and clients need all the help they can get in securing tenants,” he says. “As the market picks up, there will be more development activity, and I will be able to offer more development advisory work to clients that are waiting in the wings to build.”
Going it alone – 15 months on
Andrew Archibald took the decision to leave Humberts after 19 years while market conditions were still relatively good. He joined fellow independent Richard Niven by buying a stake in his company, Keygrove Chartered Surveyors, about 15 months ago.
Archibald says: “It’s been great. It’s a completely different environment. We are smaller, but we have lower overheads and we don’t carry any passengers.”
He believes that there will be more people striking out during the recession, and they will be better off in doing so.
“If you, as an individual, have your own client base and look at your fee income, you can see you are earning decent money,” he says. “But, in a big firm, it goes into the pockets of those who aren’t trying as hard and, eventually, you decide enough is enough. A firm is not going to pay you a bonus if you yourself are doing well. I can set up at home with a laptop, and all I need is to take half my clients and I can make a decent living.”
Southampton agents league table The number of deals is up, but total space transacted is down | ||
| Agent | Total space (sq ft) | No deals |
| Vail Williams LLP | 70,600 | 39 |
| BNP Paribas Real Estate | 65,130 | 32 |
| Savills | 37,320 | 24 |
| Lambert Smith Hampton | 32,970 | 12 |
| King Sturge | 22,390 | 6 |
| Goadsby | 14,740 | 16 |
| GL Hearn Limited | 12,920 | 1 |
| Knight Frank LLP | 11,840 | 1 |
| CB Richard Ellis | 7,570 | 4 |
| Primmer Olds LLP | 3,190 | 1 |
Source: EGi Deals Database
The table covers Southampton, Eastleigh and Romsey for the period 02 September 2008 to 31 August 2009. Both sales and lettings are included (but not investment sales). The table refers to agents acting for the lessor/vendor, not the lessee/purchaser. Joint agency deals are related to both agents
The trimming of staff numbers is understandable during a recession. When you look at the transaction volumes compared with last year’s agents league table, the evidence of tougher times is stark.
While the number of deals is about the same as last year, the total space transacted has dropped and there has been a shift in the local hierarchy.
Vail Williams now claims top spot, up from number 3 last year. Tellingly, while the number of deals the company handled jumped from 22 last year to 39 in this year’s table, the total amount of space covered by those deals this year has dropped by nearly 30,000 sq ft.
