As redundancy programmes continue across the agency sector, many senior professionals have decided to brave the volatile market and strike out on their own.
Hundreds of jobs are being cut across the largest agencies as Covid-19 continues to take its toll on the UK’s real estate industry. But rather than join the hunt for roles at rival companies, many of the individuals affected have opted to set up their own consultancies.
Peter Wrigley spent almost 16 years at CBRE, where he most recently led the specialist shopping centre lease consultancy team. He says his redundancy was a blow, but that he is viewing it as an opportunity to launch his own retail and leisure advisory firm, something he had considered doing for a number of years.
“[My] redundancy has been in no way seen as a negative thing to the people I’ve been speaking to since it happened,” Wrigley says. “If anything, it has opened my eyes to the fact that there are a lot of people I could work with who previously haven’t been an option.”
His agency, 360Retail, will work with property owners and occupiers to “move towards a more collaborative approach” and create “mutually beneficial” leasing structures.
The move to setting up and running a business is daunting for many property professionals, not least in a market as uncertain as this.
An agency executive director who was made redundant and is now establishing his own firm describes the process as “uplifting, exciting but scary”. Current market conditions are a concern, he adds. “To make this work, we need a market that is working in a proper way – we’re miles away from that.”
But he remains hopeful that newly established consultancies can “ride on goodwill” for a period, and that those who survive and become successful will “look back in five years and think that was the best thing that could have happened for me.”
BNP Paribas Real Estate senior director Stephen Shapiro has started his own lease consultancy agency, JTC Property. Shapiro, who specialises in retail and leisure across London and the South East, joined BNP PRE in 2019 as a senior director in its retail advisory team.
He tells EG: “I feel positive about [setting up the new consultancy] and it’s a total change for me. Out of adversity sometimes comes opportunity.
“Every single day I’ve been talking to people, and I know that it will take a while to secure instructions, but having that dialogue and having that conversation is important and it is keeping me energised.”
As property companies continue to consult over job cuts, real estate recruitment company deverellsmith has registered a 25% year-on-year increase in people signing up to its website. But despite this rise, chief executive and founder Andrew Deverell-Smith says redundancy levels are currently “not as high” as he expected them to be.
“If you asked me in April, I would have feared they would be higher than they are today,” he says. “It’s not as bad news as it could be.”
However, he says this could change in October, when the government’s furlough scheme comes to an end. Add into the mix fears of a second lockdown and government restrictions meaning landlords are unable to evict tenants not paying rent, and this could “potentially be really bad news” for employees working at some property companies, Deverell-Smith says.
Retail is “top of the list” of sectors most affected, Deverell-Smith says, while property management has remained “fairly resilient” and transactional markets have not seen “such bad news” for job losses.
He says it has been tough for graduates and junior workers, who have been particularly affected by job cut programmes.
A different path
Not everyone made redundant from agencies feels the need to rush back to the rat race. Some have decided to take a slightly different path.
BNP Paribas associate director Beth Brading spent more than 15 years with the business in its retail and leisure agency team. She says she is ready to make a lifestyle change, having lost her role and moved from London to South Wales.
Brading says she does not want to hide her redundancy – quite the opposite. Opening up about it has brought to her attention the “many supportive people out there who believe in you and your skill set”.
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