Grosvenor launches external property management service

Grosvenor has launched a third-party property management platform with the ambition of looking after some 500 London properties in the next five years. It is the first time the estate is offering its property management services externally in its 340-year history. If it reaches its target, the number of properties it manages in London will double to about 1,000. The estate’s own London portfolio comprises around 500 buildings. Nick Jones, head of property services at Grosvenor Britain and Ireland, told EG the estate decided to launch Grosvenor Property Management externally after receiving several unsolicited approaches last year. “It made us realise there was actually a significant market for the service that we had been honing and developing in Grosvenor,” he said. “We felt that we were now well positioned to offer those services externally.” He believed the personal touch Grosvenor is able to provide from the volume of people it has on the ground, its experience in bringing neighbourhoods together and its ability to test new innovations and technology on its own estate means it is “uniquely poised to offer property owners something just a bit different”. “We have a promise that we are never more than 10 minutes away from a building so that if something really goes wrong we can be there. To me that’s so important as that’s when you need your property manager the most,” said Jones. “I would like us to be recognised in the market as the property manager of choice. I want people to recognise that when you work with Grosvenor you get an excellent standard of service and a whole suite of capability rather than the historically quite narrow property management definition.” Jones added that the property management service will “represent good value”, and that Grosvenor will offer it in “quite a cost-competitive way”. The team has already picked up between 10 and 20 external clients. These mainly comprise smaller or foreign investors that lack London-focused expertise. More discussions with further potential external clients are ongoing and include some “more well-established companies who are looking for something a bit different”. “They are perhaps recognising that the service they’re getting at the moment is OK, but [are] looking for something to help try and differentiate them and to help provide, especially in the commercial space, that extra piece to really make an office worker come to the office.” Pandemic property management For Jones, the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the need for property management to be more than just keeping a building running. “Getting buildings ready [for after lockdown] was probably the easier part, such as introducing signage, one-way routes, screens and temperature tests.  The harder part is [dealing with] the fears and trying to tackle people’s behaviours, encouraging people to come in, helping people understand how they can engage with each other. “Those are areas that are really important for a property manager to get involved in. It’s not just the building anymore we have to look at the whole office community.” Grosvenor is focusing on offering its services within Zone 1, but if there is enough demand the estate will look at expanding into greater London and even further afield. “There’s enough to tackle in London for the moment, but it’s worth pointing out that Grosvenor is involved in other cities although in slightly different ways than in London, but that’s certainly a conversation we will have in the future,” said Jones. For the time being, the team will concentrate on providing services for office, retail and residential properties. Jones said this was where Grosvenor’s skillset was strongest. The estate’s own London portfolio consists of more than 1m sq ft of office space, about 1.1m sq ft of retail space and around 2,700 private and affordable homes. However, Jones highlighted scope to extend its services to other asset types going forward, such as hotels. Jones said: “You may have a cluster of buildings that have multiple sectors, and the way you can create the best environment for all of those occupiers is to help them all work together and that means managing all of them.” To send feedback, e-mail louise.dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette Pictures © Grosvenor Britain & Ireland