Knowing the market

Eurobuild Poland - The article describes transactions carried out without agents. They all happened at the same time. You don't think it's a new trend?

Ben Bannatyne, Jones Lang LaSalle - There have always been such transactions, so it's nothing unusual. But I think that the article is written in a way that could suggest that the point of view of Mr Dangel, Allianz's president is also the point of view of the majority of multinational companies.

Ricky Aboo, Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker - I agree. The title of your article sounds to me like a statement: "do it yourself". I think you should have written more about the tenants who went through agencies and who are keen on this cooperation.

Alan Colquhoun, DTZ Polska - It comes out as an opinion of Mr Paweł Dangel. We don't believe he's right. He thinks he knows the market and we would disagree with that. The other issue is that he thinks that having agents increases the number of people involved in the transaction thus slowing it down. That's wrong, because if you take two agents, they will get it done much quicker. From our knowledge of the market and the conversations that we have had with various developers, it appears that Allianz didn't even contact a number of the leaders. So I don't know how Allianz's president could have done the deal without contacting the main players. He was not as fully informed as perhaps he could have been, so it's hard to say that he couldn't have done a better deal than he did.

Ben Bannatyne - There is no way that he achieved the best deal available, because he simply doesn't know the market. I know clients who didn't have the opportunity to get in touch with him, and all of them have similar projects just a couple of hundreds metres from GTC, providing similar buildings, with similar volume and similar size. I find it amazing that Mr Dangel can be so categorical that he doesn't need agents when he hasn't done the market research.

Eurobuild Poland - What is the current role of agents in the Polish real estate market?

Ben Bannatyne - The same as it has always been. Agents represent landlords who want to lease the space in their buildings, and occupiers who want to move in.

Alan Colquhoun - When you represent one or the other, the way you carry out your work is completely different. When you're representing someone who is not normally connected with real estate you have to do everything, diligently and carefully. When you are acting for a developer or landlord, especially when it's a tenant's market, your aim is to contact as many people as possible, you have to drag them in. But sometimes you almost have to fight with the landlord to force him to ask a realistic level of rent, even if he is convinced that his building is the best in the world.

Ricky Aboo - Whatever form the cooperation takes, it always gives a lot of transparency to the deal.