Newsteer co-founder sees fresh start with old friends

A looming General Election is set to cause more political upheaval. The economy appears to have dodged a recession but is still on rocky ground. The ongoing stalemate over Brexit casts a shadow on the occupier market. Business owners can hardly predict the market they will face in a month, let alone a year. Surely there are better times to launch a UK property advisory firm? “It’s great isn’t it?” says Alastair Crowdy, who has done just that. “We relish that.” Crowdy sounds as if he means it. But then, Newsteer, the firm he has just launched with long-time colleague Brian Sloggett, does not appear to be the average, tentative start-up. Rather than opening the doors with just a core team to test the water, Newsteer has launched with 22 employees, many of whom have joined from GL Hearn, the Capita-owned property firm that Crowdy and Sloggett left late last year. The pair worked together at GL Hearn for about 14 years, with Sloggett as managing director, both before and after the £30m sale to Capita in 2015. They decided to set up a new business together last year, Crowdy says, registering Newsteer early in 2019 and then both taking a break. “We felt that the market in the spaces we were interested in was looking for something a little bit more agile, a little bit more client-focused,” Crowdy says. “Something where we could bring some people together and have a good level of self-determination about how we wanted to grow and run the business.” By the time they got back to their desks from travels, Crowdy says they had some 50 applications from people wanting to join the new venture. The business has launched with 10 partners, including Crowdy as managing director and Sloggett as chairman. All partners are also shareholders in the company, with no external funding. Crowdy hopes they can build a 50-strong team within the next two to three years, working across planning, development and regeneration, corporate advisory and investment. “It’s a business we’re setting up to give it a real foundation so that we can grow it over a period of time, build in succession and give it some longevity,” he says. On the pitch In describing his vision for Newsteer, Crowdy often comes back to the idea of “agility” and being more “client-centric” than he believes many large agencies can be. He borrows a metaphor from Sloggett. “Rather than being on the touchline saying ‘this is what you should be doing’, we want to be on the pitch with our clients, saying ‘we want to be giving strategic advice alongside you and have an ownership of the solutions we’re giving to you’.” The firm already has more than 50 clients, including retail occupiers rethinking their property estates and build-to-rent players, as well as some early stage investment mandates. “The goodwill from clients has been great,” Crowdy says. “Clients that I haven’t been dealing with for a long time have got in touch and given us work to do.” And what about relishing those uncertainties in the market? “We’re not ignoring what the market is looking like at the moment, but what we are able to do is set up a business that calibrates to how we see the market,” Crowdy says. “We have a workbook of opportunity and that is based on people that, largely, have product. They’re doing something with that product and they want our services to help shape that. There’s an end in sight, one way or another, to the Brexit issue. They’re starting to look at their opportunities now so they can gear themselves up. “If we start our business against that sort of backdrop, then as that clarity comes back into the market, we know there’s a lot of investment to come, we know there’s a weight of money that will come back into the UK. If we can manage our business now and make sure we’re aligned on profitable pieces of work right at this moment, then the rest is upside.” To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@egi.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @estatesgazette