GPE’s Courtauld: Focus on your customers, not just investors

Real estate developers must listen more to their customers and less to investors, according to the boss of one of the UK’s largest listed property companies.   Speaking at day one of the CREtech London proptech conference, GPE chief executive Toby Courtauld warned the real estate sector and its supply chain have been “talking to the wrong audience” when it comes to mapping out the industry’s future. “People so often speak about what the investors want. But they don’t lead – they follow. They always have done,” he said. “The people who will lead will be the customers; the future tenants coming straight out of college or university. If they come to work for a company and they turn up at a dirty, unsustainable building that’s not fit for purpose, I wager they will not want to work there. These are the people [real estate] should be talking to. The investor community simply follows and it’s mostly about box-ticking.” Courtauld added that he is “not interested” in hiring people whose soles skills lie in reading leases or putting together rent reviews. GPE is looking for a different skill set, he said, one that will help the FTSE 250 group better cater to its customers.  “We will be looking for more customer-focused people with hospitality experience to bring their experience to a traditionally very distant industry,” he said. “We will remain a B2B business but with an eye to the C. We need to make sure customers love their space, that they want to be there, that the space is magnetic. People who can help us with this are the people we want to hire.” Asked whether he felt GPE was in a position of comparable privilege in terms of achieving this given its large, central London portfolio, Courtauld said he saw little difference in what real estate companies need to do to attract tenants. “The numbers and figures may be bigger, but however big you are or wherever you are based, we are still there to supply and provide a service to those who occupy our spaces,” he said. “Whether you are in the North East, the North West or Mayfair, I don’t think the values are any different. No economics will solve a problem if you just need to change your game.”   To send feedback, e-mail emily.wright@eg.co.uk or tweet @EmilyW_9 or @EGPropertyNews