Selling to start-ups in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a county with a lot of natural advantages. Not only do the Chiltern Hills make it decidedly easy on the eye, but it is close enough to London to enjoy excellent connectivity yet far enough to make prices altogether more affordable for occupiers. According to Joanna Kearvell, director and head of agency at Chandler Garvey, this makes it a natural home for start-ups. She believes more companies begin life in Buckinghamshire than in any other part of the country, making it “the entrepreneur county of England”. It is these start-ups, alongside more established small and medium-sized businesses, that make up the bulk of the occupiers that Chandler Garvey deals with. And it is doing so with some success: Kearvell finished August as the South East’s leading individual dealmaker in EG’s On-Demand Rankings, with seven transactions totalling 10,256 sq ft. Prominent deals included the freehold sale of 5 Phoenix Business Centre in Chesham as well as lettings at 3A Gatehouse Way in Aylesbury and a 4,000 sq ft unit in High Wycombe’s Eden Centre. However, Kearvell is reluctant to suggest her August figures indicate a miraculous upturn in occupier sentiment. “Lots and lots of hard work had gone into Q1 and Q2,” she says. “We’re finding that occupiers are a bit more hesitant now, so the deals are taking quite a long time to put together – longer than they were a couple of years ago. While the deals actually completed in August, a lot of them were put together in January to March time, and that conveyancing process has just been extended.” A sunny September Kearvell has strong thoughts on the conveyancing process, believing that at the end of the market she operates in, it is a source of needless delay for all sides. “I would really like to be able to streamline and speed up the conveyancing process for smaller leases,” she says. “We are seeing a lot of our clients bring in short form leases. While occupiers are obviously very welcome to have legal advice on that, it’s not a 40-page document that requires a few thousand pounds worth of legal fees. It’s actually something that can happen quite quickly, because smaller occupiers have a much shorter timeline, traditionally, to be able to move. They’re not planning for 12 months ahead like a larger occupier.” For all the headaches, Kearvell is cautiously optimistic about the sector’s fortunes. “September has definitely started very brightly,” she says. “We’ve had more enquiries, more viewings this month than we had pre-summer. I think hesitancy will remain. Unless an occupier is compelled to move through a lease expiry or perhaps redevelopment of their building, they are taking a lot longer to make those decisions unless it really is business-critical. So while we are positive, I don’t think it’s going to run away with us towards the end of the year and into next year.” Kearvell’s August figures included three sales to owner-occupiers. She believes the market would benefit hugely from more industrial development of units between 3,000 sq ft and 10,000 sq ft. And the obstacle, she says, isn’t necessarily one of planning. “I’d love to see some new speculative development in that area, particularly for units that would be sold as opposed to leased,” she says. “I think there is definitely a demand for more good-quality industrial units, with high ESG credentials, great insulation and low running costs, for some owner occupiers to buy directly or through their pension funds. There are sites in our area that have planning but no one is brave enough to move that forward; hopefully we will see that next year, perhaps if borrowing costs come down further.” Even though she deals mainly with occupiers that do not have shareholders with demanding ESG requirements, Kearvell says environmental issues are increasingly important. “All of this has started with the larger-scale occupiers and the larger landlords we’ve acted for, pension funds and so on, which have filtered it down to the smaller occupiers. We were dealing with a charity retailer and, for 3A Gatehouse Way, it was absolutely key to make sure it was as energy-efficient as possible. And while there is still some education to do for some of the smaller landlords and occupiers on this subject, I think it is an important consideration.” The HS2 effect Buckinghamshire is also having to deal with the impact of HS2, whose route goes right through the middle of the county – something which has brought both good and bad news. Kearvell says: “HS2 has taken industrial and office space in the market, which is good, but the main impact on properties we deal with is the disruption to the local road network. There are a lot of road closures and roads being re-routed, and I think that has had a big impact on occupiers.” But Kearvell’s August figures prove that Buckinghamshire can cope with enormous infrastructure projects, and she is already looking ahead to her next deals. “We were just lucky that it all came together in August because it is typically a quieter time for new enquiries and new properties coming to the market, but it’s nice to be able to complete some of them with a fresh start ready for September,” she says. Quite how fresh that new start feels will, one suspects, be determined largely by how much time any future deals spend in the hands of solicitors. EG’s Dealmaker of the Month is selected based on deals submitted to EG Radius through our On-Demand Rankings. Head to www.eg.co.uk/agents/on-demand-rankings to find out how to submit your deals