Big 2 brokers dominate sector specialisms

JLL may be the biggest broker in Europe, but CBRE dominates the sector specialisms, according to the latest PropertyEU ranking of top brokers for 2013.

Last year, CBRE retained its leading position in offices across Europe, but also emerged as the leading specialist in the industrial arena. Transaction volumes across all sector specialisms were significantly higher last year, particularly in offices, retail and logisitics. CBRE advised on more than €15 bn worth of office deals in 2013 compared to just €5.9 bn the previous year. Retail investment volume also jumped substantially per leading player. While JLL led with the highest figure, together the top 3 (CBRE, nr 2, and Cushman & Wakefield, nr 3 ) advised on three times the volume of retail deals in the previous year.

Cushman cedes hegemony as retail specialist
Cushman & Wakefield ceded its leading position as a retail advisor in Europe to JLL and CBRE in 2013. Both JLL and CBRE topped the €7 bn-mark while Cushman & Wakefield came in third with just under €6 bn. However, together the trio dominate the retail advisory market in Europe: the nearest competitor at number 4 is Catella/Strutt & Parker with well under €1 bn, followed by Colliers International.

Catella/Strutt & Parker trump in residential
Catella’s partnership with UK-based Strutt & Parker has thrown up a leading position in one of PropertyEU’s league tables this year: together the pair top the residential advisory sector last year thanks to Strutt & Partners’ strong position in the London market. However, the ranking excludes Savills, which has traditionally ranked as the leader in this field. PropertyEU was unable to verify the figures submitted by the London-based advisory firm. Savills was also unable to provide a breakdown of deals in excess of €20 mln.

The ranking also excludes Paris-based BNP Paribas for the same reason.

The full report is available in the May edition of PropertyEU.