The offices adviser of the year category at the 2012 Estates Gazette Awards will no doubt be a closely fought affair. But the winner will have to go some way to topple CBRE from its perch.
In 2011, CBRE was a hands-down winner of this category, and for the second year in a row. One judge said the firm’s performance had been “phenomenal”, adding: “The company addressed all the key markets and should be applauded for carrying out most of the top deals.”
In the past awards year, CBRE leased over 4.73m sq ft of office space and acquired a further 1.6m sq ft of office space. In the UK Investment market it disposed of £5bn and acted as acquisition agent in £1.3bn of office-investment transactions. It all prompted one judge to say of the firm last year: “Don’t forget, they were up against strong competition too. It’s a team of real professionals looking after their clients’ interests.”
But that doesn’t mean the firm is unassailable. This year’s market is different even to last year’s. And judges will again want to see evidence of instruction wins, key pieces of work that have come to fruition and senior appointments. It’s all about demonstrating tangible measures of success and identifying what makes your team stand out from others in the market.
