Property employer GVA spots business opportunity

Is the leisure sector a future hot spot for property consultancy? GVA, a traditional graduate employer in the property sector, appears to believe it is, as it has further consolidated its position in the UK leisure property market. The firm acquired hotel and leisure property specialist RGA Consulting last Friday. This is GVA’s second acquisition of a leisure property specialist in nine months – the firm bought Humberts Leisure in May last year.

RGA specialises in the hotels, tourism and culture sectors from its bases in London and Edinburgh. Terms of the buy out haven’t been disclosed but, from what GVA has said, it seems clear that there are two main strategic benefits for the purchaser:

1. It expands the firm’s geographic reach, by adding Edinburgh to a portfolio that already includes London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. This will help the firm to offer wider services to existing clients and to gain further clients in Scotland.
2. The further expertise they’ve gained from acquiring RGA will allow them to ‘tap into the growing demand for market-led leisure business consultancy, with a particular focus on hotels in the UK’.

Mention of demand for business consultancy indicates that the property firm has spotted a business need. On the surface, it might be easy to conclude that the leisure sector would be a risky property market to enter at the moment, particularly outside of London. A Barclays Bank fourth quarter 2011 report, compiled in November last year, reported a difficult time for the leisure industry outside of the UK capital (which commentators believe will benefit from the Olympics).

The Barclays report also used the available data to speculate that property values in the leisure sector remained flat in 2011. This is, therefore, not an area in which property firms can easily help generate increased rental returns for clients. However, GVA appears to have identified that property owners and tenants within the leisure sector need advice on how best to make the most of their real estate, especially when struggling in a challenging economic climate.

GVA has also sets its sights on making more acquisitions within the leisure sector. Rob Bould, the firm’s chief executive, said: ‘Our aspiration for further expansion remains, particularly in areas of the market where we continue to gain market share.’

This sort of information is useful to graduates who are researching the firm before an interview: you can ask your interviewers their opinion when it’s your turn to ask questions. It’s also useful for graduates who accept jobs with the firm – if leisure is set to grow in importance within the firm, perhaps it would be a good idea to specialise in this area as a qualified surveyor.

• GVA acquires Humberts Leisure
• The non-technical interview questions GVA will ask you
• Why Savills has set its sights on London

Posted by Abi_TARGETjobs on 14 February 2012

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