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.
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