One-man-band is now the name of the game

Published on Monday 23 November 2009 21:58

THE commercial property sector has not escaped the downsizing that has hit business generally as a result of the recession but a new niche sector has emerged in Scotland – small companies, often one-person operations, which have been set up by well-known players.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Scotland) says that there has been a significant increase in the number of chartered surveyors setting up their own business and it is ready to offer advice to surveyors looking to go it alone.

Advice, no doubt, is always welcome but most of the go-it-aloners have enough experience and savvy – and connections – to get them off to a flying start.

One of the relatively early ones was Phil Reid, former head of agency in Glasgow with CBRE and at one time CBRE managing director in Scotland, who called it a day a year ago at CBRE and set up Phil Reid Associates.

He said at the time: "I won't be the first or the last to set up a small firm. There's a lot of bad news among friends of mine who are becoming victims almost on a weekly basis."

Six months ago, Jonathan McManus was in charge of the Glasgow offices team with Colliers CRE when, as he puts it, he became one of the victims.

He explains: "When the transactional side of the business fell off the cliff about 12 months ago it left a lot of us very exposed and those involved in the transactional side of the business were hit very hard. When that happens you have two options – do nothing for a while in the hope that the market returns and you get another job or go down the very brave or foolish route in a tough market and do it on your own."

So he formed McManus Property Consultants and is building relationships with a growing band of clients who like his hands-on approach and the fact that he is the only person they deal with.

"They know that with me the buck stops here. I am a one-man band. You have to show them that you can make the right moves – they appreciate that you depend on them and they are happy to stand by you.

"I used to be offices and industrial but you have to expand your range and, after being a specialist for a long time, I now also do some work in retail and waste re-generation and am acting for a wind farm company."

Last week Gregor Martin launched a new company, West Bay Asset Management, which will provide a third-party asset management service from strategic portfolio level advice through to hands-on help to owners of commercial property investments throughout the UK.

His timing was good – it was just after Kenmore went into administration and that was where he was a director and head of UK asset management until December last year.

He says: "The clouds were gathering. I was part of the team to do the financial re-structuring with HBOS and I thought it appropriate to go then. I will be operating from home (Linlithgow] to begin with then open in Edinburgh or Glasgow and expand from there. It's been a turbulent few years for the property sector and there is more to come. Occupiers' expectations in relation to service levels, lease flexibility and cost of accommodation have been materially altered by the economic downturn.

"Now more than ever it's imperative to manage your property assets efficiently and intensively if you want to retain existing tenants, attract new ones or position your investment correctly for any future sale."