“We’re battling to flatline,” said a senior figure at one of the 50 firms in the 2012 Estates Gazette Top Agents league table. Many will identify with that sentiment.
First the stirring headlines: Savills returns to the top spot, the top 50’s overall turnover is up and more jobs have been added than removed.
But, and here come the caveats, that turnover rise is 1.2% (last year’s, neatly, was 12%) and the jobs rise was a modest 174. Worse, more than one in three firms report a fall in turnover on last year, just a handful expect occupier activity to increase next year and almost everyone is expecting more propco administrations over the next 12 months.
The slog continues.
But let’s not forget the good news of the past 12 months. At this point last year DTZ’s future was uncertain and it was battling a furore caused by bonus payments to former chief executive Paul Idzik. Today its future is much healthier. It is in safe corporate hands and while, sadly, it will no longer be releasing figures for what was the UK DTZ business, we estimate it is growing faster than many of its rivals. And, under the UGL umbrella, it stands a fighting chance of delivering on the multi-service ambitions that have eluded others before it.
Colliers, another firm that has stared into the abyss over the past 12 months, is also on a more secure footing, though its revenue dipped last year. GVA, which has undergone a restructuring of its own, grew, as did Lambert Smith Hampton, whose restructuring conversations continue.
As you would expect, it fell to the smaller firms to post the eye-caching increases: Edward Symmons, Eddisons and MJ Mapp all posted significant double-digit rises. Their bigger rivals would say it is always easier to grow a smaller turnover faster; smaller firms would argue that you have to work every bit as hard whatever your starting point.
So a mixed picture and perhaps one that chimes with the economic forecast voiced by Bank of England governor Mervyn King this week: “I think the next quarter will probably be up,” he said. “I think we are beginning to see a few signs now of a recovery, but it will be a slow recovery.”
Auntie’s helper
Speaking of LSH, it has been retained as the BBC’s property adviser. It has done a good job for Auntie in recent years, not least in selling Television Centre to Stanhope for £200m over the summer. Top of its to-do list will be the future of the iconic Maida Vale Studios, home to the sessions recorded for late DJ John Peel. Having just finished reading Peel’s autobiography, the idealist in me hopes the site has a musical future.
Whatever happens to Maida Vale, the BBC is fast becoming a public sector exemplar in reviewing its estate and seeking to capitalise on its value. Were other parts of the public sector to take a similarly pragmatic line, King’s slow recovery might be very much accelerated.
Three trophies for EG
Estates Gazette won three trophies at this week’s PPA Digital Publishing Awards and beat some of the UK’s best-known magazines and websites to pick up the headline award.
Presenting the Estates Gazette team with the Outstanding Achievement of the Year award, the judges said: “Our supreme award goes to one of the first B2B brands to deliver digital and data content to its audience. Outstanding performance from an outstanding brand.”
Picking up the Digital Publisher of the Year (Business) and Marketing Team of the Year awards, we were further praised “for leading through innovation, offering a great customer experience and leveraging new and traditional channels with excellent results”. With our new iPad edition flying off the virtual shelves, that innovation will continue. To subscribe, go to www.estatesgazette.com/tablet
