Photo: Colliers / Luke DawsonWith revenue of over 4 billion US dollars, more than 17,000 professionals in 62 countries and over 25 acquisitions in Europe alone over the past decade, Colliers has been the fastest growing real estate company in the world over the past five years. One of the "big four", Colliers was the first global real estate provider to enter the Serbian market in November 2000. After a short break last year, Colliers Serbia has been back in business since July 1, with a new affiliate, West Properties. "Serbia has always been an important market. We've always felt that the Serbian market offers, first of all, a lot of potential to real estate investors and developers, but also, strategically, it's very important from a regional and even from a European perspective what it offers in terms of its location, logistics, outsourcing and the office sector. And we've always felt that it's an important country that we need to have a presence in," says Luke Dawson, Managing Director for EMEA Cross-Border Capital Markets at Colliers in the interview for our magazine.
COLLIERS HAS BEEN THE FASTEST GROWING REAL ESTATE COMPANY IN THE WORLD OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS
In recent years, the real estate and construction industries have experienced significant growth in Belgrade and Serbia. How does Serbia's real estate market compare to those of other countries in the region?
I first started coming to Serbia in 2008, and I actually had the privilege of living here in 2012 and 2013 and the amount of development that's taken place during that time has been phenomenal. Even compared to the neighboring countries in the region, Belgrade in particular has developed on a much faster pace than almost any city in Europe, frankly, over the past 10 years. When you look at the amount of new offices, new residential, new shopping centers, versus where this market was six, seven years ago, it's absolutely incredible. And that trend seems to be continuing. A lot of investors have realized that there's a lot of value in this market. When you look at the cost of construction versus other neighboring markets, when you look at the rental growth, when you look at the growth of the younger population, there's a lot of strong arguments in terms of why you should be in Belgrade.
Colliers offers a wide range of professional services for buyers, tenants, and investors, but some of them are getting better year after year. What are the services that have had the most growth recently?
We're seeing a large amount of change in the real estate service provider industry. What's happening is that the traditional services of office leasing, retail leasing, industrial leasing, valuations, etc., are still there, but clients are expecting more. Certain new service lines start to emerge, whether it's design and build architecture, engineering firms, project management, corporate finance, debt services. All of these additional elements are becoming larger parts of our business. And there are things that clients are starting to expect from their real estate service provider. So for us as a company, it's very important that not only do we continue to be strong in the traditional services that we provide, we need to keep adapting towards what clients want. The most significant growth that we've seen is probably actually in the project management side of the business. And project management can range from fitting out a small office or retail center up to the construction of office buildings and big logistics centers. Colliers has made a strategic investment in this area across Europe.
In terms of offices, countries, and employees, Colliers is also notably getting bigger globally every year. What do the numbers demonstrate?
Colliers has been the fastest growing real estate company in the world over the past five years, in terms of revenue, our acquisition plans and our growth, in terms of headcount. We now have over 17,000 professionals in 62 countries around the world. Our revenue is in excess of 4 billion US dollars. And we've been on a large growth plan of both hiring organically, but also acquisitions. In Europe alone we've done over 25 acquisitions over the past decade. We have several more that we're working on right now. And what we like to do is to both grow through the natural growth process that we have in a normal country but we also strategically like to acquire companies that allow us to take a large step forward. So we do this both on a country basis and also on a service line basis.
When Colliers is brought up, it is usually mentioned that it is part of the "big three" or "big four" in real estate business. The balance of power changes, of course, from year to year. What is it like right now? And what, apart from numbers, makes Colliers stand out from CBRE, JLL, or Cushman & Wakefield?
I would say those are the “big four”. If you're looking at the market capitalization of the company, we would be the third largest real estate service provider in the world. But our focus is always more around the company and the culture and how we deal with clients. It's not our ultimate aim to be the largest. Our view is that we want to be the best. I think all of our competitors do a lot of things very well, but Colliers has always tried to do things a little bit differently. We try and be more entrepreneurial, and we also try and spend a lot of time focusing on understanding our client's business. So not just their real estate needs, but what is it that they're looking to do for their overall business. Real estate usually is just the platform for a company to operate. And for us as a real estate provider, it's really important that we understand what they do every single day, so that we make sure that we give them the real estate that matches their needs going forward. So our aim is always to adapt to the client.
How much are the four of you really competitive and how much do you cooperate, because you actually share the market everywhere in the world?
We definitely share the market. Depending on the country, different firms have different strengths and different regions. And we also cooperate. There are often times when we work together on projects. The competition between all the firms is relatively friendly because real estate is a small industry in any given market. Look at Belgrade, for example, everybody knows everybody. And it's not much different in any other city around the world. While real estate might be large, the number of people that are active in what we do is relatively small. So you need to have relationships with competitors, it's about information flow. The relationships we have with our competitors is probably very different than in other industries, because for the most part it's friendly competition.
How satisfied are you with the results of the office in Zagreb, which covers Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and where do you see your position in the Serbian market in a year?
We have a fantastic business in Croatia, they've just recently opened up an office in Ljubljana. They've done a great job in terms of building up, not only kind of their local business, but also with international investors. That business is really a great example of the Colliers flexibility and being able to be more entrepreneurial. When you look at what our aim is here for Serbia, I would never say we want to be number one or number two within a year or two. Our aim is always to make sure that we have a great business with great clients. And I think what we'll see over the next year or two is that we'll be able to take the skills and expertise from West Properties and now add the platform that Colliers provides in terms of client relationships, marketing, wider access to capital and knowledge and experience that exists throughout Europe. So you'll see this business here in Serbia grow tremendously over the next year or two, and develop into new product types, and also hire several more people.
Where do you see the potential for the greatest business growth in the Serbian market—in retail, office, logistics, industrial, residential, or maybe hospitality?
I think that the logistics sector is the one with the most potential for growth, if you look at the number of square meters of logistics stock that exists in this country versus what you see in other neighboring countries. The logistics sector in Serbia only started developing four or five years ago, significantly behind several other countries. So I think the logistics has the most potential to grow. We've seen tremendous growth here already in terms of the office market and residential market, with several new shopping centers opening the past five, six years. It will continue, but I don't think it will be as high growth. I also think that retail parks still have more room for further expansion across the country.
You have been carefully selecting a new partner in Serbia for more than a year, and you have finally decided on the well-known local real estate provider West Properties, which has been doing business as Colliers since July 1. What led you to make this decision and what do you expect to get out of this partnership?
We interviewed over 20 companies, and carried out one of the largest processes we've ever done in terms of trying to find a new partner. We wanted to find not only a company that had great professionals and good relationships with clients, but a company that we could trust and a company that we felt had the same culture that we do. West Properties not only did have the skills, we really felt that they wanted to grow the business the same way that we wanted to grow in Colliers. So I think for us it was a great fit. What Colliers would want out of a business here in Serbia is that, yes, we want to have a successful business, but more importantly, we want to make sure that in this market we have a company that can service our large international clients, whether that's a Microsoft or whoever else that are active in this region. The most important thing for us is when clients are coming to Serbia that we trust our partner here in the country to make sure that they get the same level of service that they would get anywhere else in the world. And with West Properties, we knew we could do that.
You have been working for Colliers since 2003, left the company in 2014, but returned in 2017. Sounds like - once with Colliers always with Colliers. Does this also apply to clients?
I would say so. We're fortunate enough to have clients that have been with us almost as long as I've been with the company. One of the great things about Colliers is that a lot of the people have been with our company for a long time. I've been with the company for nearly 20 years, my father has been with the company for close to 40 years. And that naturally then builds relationships with clients that reflect the same thing. The clients want stability. They want to know when they call us that it's not a different person doing the office leasing or investment valuations every six months. So we're fortunate enough that we do have clients that are being loyal to Colliers for 10, 15, 20 years. That's really important for us.
You are a Canadian, based in London, and an expert for investment sales business across Central, Eastern and South East Europe. How did you manage to combine all those cultural and geographical differences into such a successful career?
My mother's family is from Ukraine, so I have roots to the kind of wider region here. When I came over to Europe from Canada in 2007, I was 24 years old. At that time, I never thought I was going be here that long. But across all the countries in Central and Eastern Europe, I always felt very welcomed. And I always found it really interesting, the cultural and business differences, the history and everything else. So for me, coming from Canada over to Central and Eastern and Southeast Europe, was in some regards very different, but in other respects, it didn't feel that foreign to me, maybe because of my family history, or maybe because I grew up in Canada where you're used to different cultures and different people. But I really enjoyed it. My entire career has been always changes. I've lived in Dubai, in Belgrade, in Prague, in London. The roles that I've been lucky enough to have, let me travel and see different people and cultures. Ending up in London was probably more business driven than anything. It was the opportunity to do what I'm doing now, taking what I learned in Central and Southeast Europe and seeing what we could do with that on a European basis.
By: Gordana Knežević Monašević
Photo: Colliers
