January
“Ultimately as an investor in real estate, you are interfering in communities, so you’ve got to make sure communities benefit from what you’re doing. I think you’ll see a lot of property companies talk more about shared values and public values.”
Ian Hawksworth, chief executive of Capital & Counties
“Property developers will pursue margins and are entitled to do so. But we don’t have a shortage of housing per se, just a shortage of affordable housing. We don’t want a property system that serves the few and excludes the many.”
Andrew Charalambous, housing and environment spokesman for UKIP
“We have been through cycles enough times to know that property follows economic cycles. One of the history lessons in provincial development is you want to start early in the recovery cycle”.
Nigel Hugill, co-founder of Urban & Civic
February
March
“I think it is right that the property industry, just like the food and drink industry, is under scrutiny. That goes with the responsibility of creating products and delivering services that are integral to people’s lives.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation
“We make models that reflect our style, in that we focus first on the ground and the landscape. At the early stages of masterplanning it doesn’t matter what happens to the building after the first two storeys. It is all about getting the footprint absolutely right first.”
Pankaj Patel, founder of Patel Taylor
April
“We can’t judge the market now by the last financial crisis. That was the equivalent of the 100-year flood. We really don’t see those very often and we can’t make decisions about the future based on that.”
Chris Ludeman, global president of capital markets for CBRE
May
“We are in the golden age of real estate, but not everyone is prepared to take their chips off the table, so we provide an alternative exit strategy.”
Ronald Dickerman, chief executive of Madison International Realty
June
“There is no sense that the market is going to get out of kilter. Just by investing in the West End and allowing the market to do what markets do, you will make a healthy return.”
Tim Roberts, head of offices and residential, British Land
July
“Bankers don’t learn the lessons. Big institutions don’t learn the lessons of the cycle. If I look through my career – four cycles, four recessions – the same mistakes were made by banks in every single one of them.”
Chris Sullivan, former deputy chief executive of RBS
August
“I am a cultural entrepreneur. That is how I see myself. This whole idea of luvvies against capitalism? It is not real.”
Roland Smith, artistic director at Theatre Delicatessen
“The regional gap will never even out. London is a global city. It is where the real values are. Things are picking up in the regions, and Manchester is at the forefront of that, but values drag it back in time and time again. It will never be able to compete.”
Ian Simpson, partner at SimpsonHaugh
September
“It is difficult for family companies. There is a natural decline. You might have an entrepreneur or a couple of siblings who built these companies quite large, but what happens is these people reproduce and the power of dispersion is huge.”
Anthony Malkin, chairman at Empire State Realty Trust
“The political situation now, especially with what is happening in Syria, is making people nervous. But Istanbul is actually quite detached from all of that. We are miles from the south-eastern border and the dynamic here is very different.”
Robert Varon, development director at Mar Yapi
October
“I think it’s noticeable since the downturn that the West Midlands has hit another gear. The catalyst was the push by the car manufacturers to export their way to
recovery.”
Caroline Spelman, MP for Meriden
“I can see a place for all our brands in Birmingham. It’s just too big a city to ignore.”
Tim Bacon, chief executive, Living Ventures
“We don’t need to invest. We invest when we think that it makes sense.”
Meka Brunel, executive vice-president at Ivanhoé Cambridge
November
“The group is now looking into more adventurous projects. Not necessarily big developments, but maybe we would get our hands a bit more dirty this time.”
Aswin Gunawan, head of mergers and aquisition at Sinar Mas Land
“When you have a conviction you need to run with it. You have to fight for your vision even when it gets shot down. In this life, and in real estate, you always have to be moving, changing. Doing something.”
Aby Rosen, chief executive, RFR Holding
“Go to Australia or the Netherlands and you see completely different styles. People are not working in pens. They are sitting on sofas; they are at bars. They are in a whole variety of spaces… Go around a UK building and people are looking bored.”
Sir Stuart Lipton, developer of 22 Bishopsgate, EC2
December
“Consolidation across the market is fundamentally changing the way larger agents operate. They are now driven by the need to build turnover and gain market share as they seek to maintain a ‘magic circle’ or ‘big four’ like we have seen emerge in other professional services sectors.”
Bill Siegle, senior partner, Cluttons
“This survey result is simply astonishing, and extremely disappointing. I can only hope this is an indication that more people feel able to speak out. But it is a wake-up call for the industry.”
Jackie Sadek, chief executive of UK Regeneration on the EG Salary Survey figure reporting 21% of people feel they have been discriminated against in their jobs
“I’m not doing deals where we don’t expect to have an operating margin in that individual building in excess of 35%.”
Patrick Nelson, WeWork head of real estate for Europe
emily.wright@estatesgazette.com
