One of the biggest challenges for companies is sourcing market relevant property advice that is properly applied to their business interests.
The reason for this challenge is because property and real estate issues are always one-offs. The same property event never happens twice.
This presents companies with something of a conundrum in terms of the timing for real estate related actions, prioritising them and ensuring their effectiveness in execution.
SBM was founded by Stephen Bleakley in 1999 ago to provide business tenants and occupiers with real estate related management consulting.
Stephen believed there was a gap in the market because the alternatives, outlined below, were deeply flawed:
Hire own property manager
They are likely to have limited experience, can’t access the market without revealing their identity and have restricted resources. They frequently get pulled into maintenance and facilities management issues.
Hire a global real estate broker
Without any doubt there are some absolutely brilliant individual brokers and advisers but the problem is finding them. Service levels between different offices can vary significantly and while this approach works with the accountancy and legals, it is harder to achieve with property.
Property is inherently a localised issue – the market for individual properties varies street by street, block by block; the characteristics and documentation attached to each building is far from uniform.
No individual broker has offices in every city of the world so it is impossible for global brokers to say they provide a global service.
Appoint an internal member of the team
We have seen companies appoint enthusiastic and occasionally unrealised self proclaimed property ‘experts’ from within their own team.
While enthusiasm and the internet can get you quite far, it can also get you into quite a lot of trouble. The breadth of issues attached to property, demands attention from more than just one person. Another problem with property transactions is that their appropriateness and validity can be masked, with issues only becoming apparent further down the line when the individual may have moved on.
Management consultancy related to real estate
SBM works for senior management teams that lead companies which ‘make and do’ things. As a result, they need property. Whilst property is not where they make their profit they all need this imperfect, disparate, uncompromising resource.
Forward thinking companies that rank real estate up with their core decision making, taking correct advice and securing professionally benchmarked ‘good deals’ will always have the edge on their competitors.