Agents in the field

They ARE settING themselves up outside the capital cities, AS IT is easier to operate from branches than from the HQ. is IT A spy ring? NO – it is in fact real estate consultancy agencies, who ARE recognizing the potential of THE regions by opening OFFICES in the major cities of large countries

Emil Górecki, Mladen Petrov

ANo more business travelling

Colliers International, the Canadian consultancy agents, arrived in Poland in 1997, opening one office in Warsaw with three people to serve clients. Most transactions were finalized in Warsaw at that time, with little attention paid to regional markets. But as an increasing number of businesses were set up outside Warsaw, the company decided to open regional branches. Last year, acting from its Warsaw office, the company was the agent in the lease of 30,000 sqm office space and the sales of two buildings in Kraków: Buma Square and Rondo Business Park. This was one of the reasons why a branch office opened in Kraków this April

The work needed to open a new office usually takes around six months, involving locating an office, the fitting out and the recruitment of the proper staff. Hadley Dean emphasizes that: “Recruiting is the most important growth factor. On average, around 15 people are interviewed for each post. After all, the talent of the personnel employed depends on how long one has to wait for an investment in a local branch to reimburse the finance spent on it. The outlay required to open a new office must be made a year earlier, including the rent for the office, employing the staff and regular visits. But I am quite sure that they will be reimbursed quickly, I would say between 12 and 24 months.”

Since a growing chain of estate agencies belongs to one single company, their outposts in regional cities will not compete with each other, but instead will cooperate closely with the head office in Warsaw. Magda Cieliczko, operations director of Colliers International’s Polish office, puts it this way: “We do not want local offices to become mere satellites. New customers and new transactions are won both in the Warsaw office as well as in regional branches. Our customers are usually large international companies with offices in Warsaw and in other Polish cities. Investors entering the Polish market and looking for a place to invest, as well as local firms, constitute other categories.”Agency chains ensnare Poland

The ultimate number of offices largely depends on customer requirements, but a substantial potential does exist and companies are wondering whether to establish offices in Łódź, Katowice and Lublin. The chain of regional offices in Poland is still smaller than in Germany and Spain, but an opportunity to make up for lost time will soon arise.

CB Richard Ellis appeared in Poland in 2000 with three offices: its head office in Warsaw and regional branches in Poznań and Kraków. CB RE operated in close cooperation with partners in the TriCity and Wrocław who were not part of the company’s structure. Today, CB RE has branches in Poznań, Kraków and – from the beginning of the year – in Wrocław, as well as in Warsaw. They all act as agents in the leasing and selling of office and warehouse space and are consultants in the residential sector, identifying attractive development plots and carrying out market research. The Kraków branch is additionally developing its corporation consultancy department.

Nigel Wade, CB Richard Ellis Polska’s managing Chasing the competition

Jones Lang LaSalle is also hard on the heels of the competition. It is opening a local branch office in Kraków and, at the end of the year, in Gdańsk. The plans for these two offices are well-known, but the company is not stopping there. Anna Kot, director of the office department at Jones Lang LaSalle, makes it quite clear that “This does not mean we were earlier absent in regional markets, since we were acting as agents in transactions there. Besides this, our staff is working in customers’ office structures, a kind of outsourcing.”

The King Sturge agency also opened its first office outside Warsaw in early April. Katowice was chosen. King Sturge is the exclusive agent there for leasing the Silesia Towers office building, as well as for TriGranit and for Millenium Plaza owned by the Aviva fund, in which it is also the building’s manager. King Sturge also leases space out in Helical shopping park in Gliwice and Cross Point in Żory – an industrial park in which Osier’s Group is the developer. Four people are employed in this branch, so far dealing with acquiring land, managing properties, market research and leasing office and industrial space.

Fresh on the market

Until recently, King Sturge was the only large company in the real estate industry without its own Bulgaria office, but it is to begin operations here in May, when it will open its first office in Sofia. Procon International based in Sofia will be King Sturge’s partner in this venture, in which both will establish a new company. Regis Jacquemin, head of marketing in Europe for King Sturge, remarks that: “The greatest virtue of this partnership is that we shall be present on the Bulgarian market as King Sturge. Customers will immediately know who we are and that we bring our acquired experience to this new market.”

A similar situation pertains in Hungary. Although all the usual international operators are present on this market, none of them plans to expand outside Budapest due to its size and the disproportionate difference between the capital and other large cities. Orsolya Simon of CB Richard Ellis’ Hungarian branch explains: “We are quite able to coordinate all projects without leaving Budapest. Hungary’s office market is largely restricted to Budapest, while outside it consultancy agents mainly serve shopping and logistics projects.” Orsolya Simon adds that: “It is highly improbable that any of our competitors would open an office outside the capital.”ν