The hire of a Brookfield duo in Germany is another step of an ambitious growth plan to expand across Europe’s largest markets.
A year after its acquisition of UK-based GVA in 2019, Canadian real estate advisory firm Avison Young is looking to expand its capital advisory offering across the main markets on the Continent to offer a pan-European capital advisory business alongside the consulting services.
Last month, the group hired Martin Brümmer and Christian Schreiber from Brookfield as principals in its European Capital Markets group, with a focus on building the German capital advisory business.
Brümmer and Schreiber will work alongside London-based Penny Hacking to build a pan-European capital markets business. But this is just a small initial step in a much bigger plan for the Continental European business, says Gerry Hughes, president of Avison Young, Europe.
The group is in fact in negotiations for new potential additions on the Continent, Hughes said: ‘Before the outbreak of Covid-19, we were well advanced in discussions to take the Avison Young model into the main European markets with a focus on France, Spain, Italy and Netherlands, in addition to the UK, Germany and Poland.
'These M&A discussions have been put on ice, but only on ice, for a few weeks and we are now resurrecting them again.’
Hughes believes M&A opportunities will come to the fore in the next months, as many companies grapple with a worsening market environment linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
‘Covid-19 has changed real estate forever,’ he notes. ‘The current market turbulence will create new opportunities for us and our strong financial base will allow us to take full advantage of them when they arise.’
Potential new platforms would need to be a ‘cultural fit’ with Avison Young’s people and service-focused approach, he added.
‘I believe that sharing the same culture and putting clients first is central to making the integration works. The crisis will be a major catalyst of change in the industry and the Avison Young model’s focus on the needs of our clients – whether they be owners, occupiers or enablers, including the public sector - across their real estate life-cycle is well suited to assisting them through the issues arising from the pandemic.
We need to have strong transactional capabilities, but we also need to drive the growth of our consulting offer which is already so strong in the UK. ’
For the other, smaller European countries, Avison Young will focus on building an affiliate network.
‘In the long term, the aim is for Avison Young to provide a truly pan-European approach where every client gets a similar level of service regardless of the jurisdiction. Ideally we will attain this through ownership and hiring, but in smaller countries we will consider affiliation as an interim step, using the GVA Worldwide network which was in place before Avison Young’s takeover of GVA,’ Hughes said.
Over the past 10 years, Avison Young has grown from 300 real estate professionals in 11 offices in Canada to approximately 5,000 real estate professionals in 120 offices in 20 countries.
Covid-19 evolution
Commenting on the impact of the pandemic on real estate markets worldwide, Hughes said: ‘We have seen a rapid acceleration of trends that would have continued over years arrive in a matter of weeks, sending a tsunami through the market.
The office environment will never be the same again, flexible working has fully arrived with a thud, the idea of a disaggregated working environment where staff will have a choice of a central office base, a subsidiary office that avoids less travel and a home working environment is going to be the norm.
The social distancing requirements may relax, but our working habits have changed so what will happen to all that surplus office space in our central areas?’
Hughes also believes post-Covid-19 we will see a blurring of lines between the different asset classes including office, residential, leisure etc. “I think we will see the resurgence of the neighborhood where people have full access to all their needs - living, working, shopping and leisure. And access to local public space and better walking and cycling facilities will rise in value - this is already having a significant impact in the UK. These trends were already happening, but now they have really arrived.’
