Growth and opportunity in the South West: CBRE
CBRE's managing director for Midlands and the South West Tom Morris on how CBRE South West has nearly doubled in size in the last five years, what's next for the commercial real estate business, and why, in the 16 years that he has working in Bristol, Morris believes that in the 16 years this is the most exciting opportunity for the city to increase its exposure in the UK property market.
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00:00My name is Tom Morris and I am the Managing Director of our Midlands and South Business.
00:13I joined CBRE over 16 years ago now, qualified at University of West of England and joined our
00:20graduate programme at our Bristol office at CBRE. I've been fortunate enough to have experience in
00:25our valuation team and investment team and after 10 years I was offered the role of the Head of
00:30Office for Bristol. Since then I've taken on a further role which is to look after the Midlands
00:35and South Business and Camcocks business. So that includes our Birmingham, Bristol,
00:40Southampton and Oxford offices. So being part of CBRE and part of our global brand we're looking
00:47to grow all of our regional markets and areas that we operate in. So for Bristol specifically
00:52we've been looking to grow our office from 50 up to 100 and we're currently at about 90.
00:57The way we're doing that is to enter into newer service lines that we're not currently in
01:01but also to go and target those key teams or expertise which don't currently have in the
01:05office. We've done that through M&A, we've done it through key hires and we've done it through an
01:09expansion of our next gen team which is principally around our graduates and our apprentices. So quite
01:15simply put we look to retain and recruit the very best talent in any markets that we work in.
01:20In Bristol specifically this has meant we've had to go to the market, identify where those best in
01:24class teams exist and make sure that we're attracting them to CBRE. We've not just done
01:29this through senior hires we've also done it through junior hires as well and specifically
01:33around our next gen program. By doing that we've been able to actively target and ensure that we're
01:38hitting all the targets that we set ourselves around diversity and inclusion which has brought
01:42a real cultural balance to the whole office. And it's also about our networks, we're a people
01:46business so growing those networks with the people that we then bring into our business
01:50to go and sell the business back to them has been a real key part of our growth strategy.
01:56So even though we've grown a lot over the last five years the exciting thing is there's still
02:00loads to go at. If I pick up two or three key priorities for us over the next five years
02:04I'd probably say it's around the public sector so everyone knows local authorities at the moment
02:08really do need the help of the property industry to help not only their commercial assets but their
02:13wider holdings as well. I think secondly it's around operational real estate so again with
02:17clients looking to diversify their portfolios away from the core revenue streams we see this
02:21as a key opportunity. And lastly anything living so whether that's BTR, whether it's PBSA or whether
02:28it's co-living these are all areas of the business that we're looking to focus on and make sure we've
02:32got the right expertise to help service our clients. I think this is a really exciting time
02:40not just for Bristol but the wider commercial property industry. We're at that perfect point
02:44in the cycle now where there's the green shoots of lower inflation, lower interest rates and the
02:49occupational markets really firing on all cylinders. For Bristol specifically it's always been a hard
02:53city to develop in mass so what I think over the next three to five years we'll see is that temple
02:58area quarter with the likes of university now coming out of the ground. You've got Arena Island
03:03and you've just got another 130 hectares of brownfield land for investors and developers to
03:08get their hand on and to my mind this is the catalyst that will really drive Bristol forward
03:12and put us on the UK map. In addition to that and I mentioned the occupational markets if you take
03:18offices in Bristol as an example this year we'll have seen the highest rental growth in history.
03:24We're going to see £50 a square foot rent achieved in Bristol which will set us apart from
03:28other regional centres. It's not just in the offices but in the industrial market as well
03:32and I mentioned living earlier and we've seen the likes of the PBSA market double digit annual
03:37rental growth and these are all key indicators of why Bristol is going to be such a successful
03:41city going forward.