INTERNATIONAL
Going Global T
Andrea Kirkby reviews the current state of play in international estate agency
wenty years ago, if you wanted to expand your estate agency brand, you’d look at the next county – and you were doing well if you moved out of your
home region. Now, British agents are increasingly looking much further afield, and expanding residential brands to global markets. Commercial property has long been a global market with firms such as DTZ expanding internationally. But residential, at least at the top end, is now beginning to catch up. The leaders have been the larger agents,
particularly those dealing in premium property (such as Savills) and those that are already involved in international markets on the commercial side (such as
Chesterton Humberts). But residential brand Winkworth has also got involved, building up networks in France and Portugal, and so has franchise Fine & Country – now in the Middle East, Cyprus, Malta, Madeira, South Africa and the Channel Islands.
What’s the attraction? The rationale is simple, as Bill Siegle, senior partner at Cluttons, shows. “We’re in a global economy,” he says, “and the growth rates for India and the Far East, for instance, are so much more attractive than in the UK and Europe. A lot of our clients over here are international players. So our strategy is to go for growth, but it must be profitable growth.” That’s not always driven simply by the
residential market. Andrew Hawkins says that, “The decision to open an office depends on Chesterton Humberts’ company strategy as a whole, not just the residential business.” Abu Dhabi for instance is a multidisciplinary office, with commercial as well as residential business and a leasing team, all currently quite busy. He believes that, “RICS is becoming very
much the model for dealing with property in the Middle East”, particularly, but not only, on the commercial side. That raises the question of whether estate agency has become something of a UK competitive advantage; certainly Chestertons sees RICS membership as a major strength that they can use globally to secure business. “For a lot of the larger UK firms the way they operate is seen as a mark of quality.”
france
Winkworth Antibes offers a fascinating variety of properties
48 JUNE 2010 PROPERTYdrum
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