Hanover Green, the niche independent adviser, is preparing to celebrate 15 years in business by settling into new offices and rebranding. CoStar News catches up with a team that is now one of the largest in central London and South East agency.
Offices, retail and leisure adviser Hanover Green was launched in September 2009 by former DTZ and Hodnett Martin Smith colleagues Rob Senior, John Guise, Simon Hall, Neil Proctor, David Cuthbert and Kevin Hawthorn alongside NB Real Estate’s Peter Trinder and Thomas Davidson & Partners’ Sarah Porter, working out of offices on London’s Old Burlington Street.
Spin forward 15 years and the thriving firm has 32 staff, significantly more service lines and a bigger and better office that it has just moved into at 33 Great Pulteney Street in Soho.
Originally split into three divisions – office agency, investment & development, and lease advisory services – it has focused on central London, the London Boroughs and the South East. Now it has a number of other strings to its bow, notably a busy London retail and leisure team.
When CoStar News catches up with Greater London and South East office agency focused David Cuthbert, London offices specialist Nick Raven, investment and development adviser Jonathan Webb, and retail specialist Matt Hyland the team is keen to point out Hanover Green has grown substantially but is also celebrating safely reaching maturity and that there is no need necessarily to expand much further.
Cuthbert is a founding member while Webb joined the firm in 2013 from DTZ to work in its investment team and became a principal in 2015, and Raven joined in 2014 as a principal responsible for central and suburban London office agency.
"Today we have rebranded and relaunched the logo and the website and we have moved into new offices at 33 Great Pulteney Street," Webb says. "Over our period in business there has been very significant growth. And this is very generous space to allow for our business to benefit from a vastly updated working environment. But it is our 15th anniversary in September and I think it is the time to celebrate being a mature company. It's a milestone."
The office move is from its second home at Sackville House, increasing its occupancy from 1,800 square feet to 2,700 square feet.
"We don't think we will grow much bigger," says Raven before adding the company is in the process of taking on two or three more people now and last week announced it had recruited JLL West End offices partner Stuart Barron to its lease advisory team.
"We want to stay around this size. Any bigger and you are no longer so nimble and dynamic."
Cuthbert says the USP has remained the same since day one, no matter the expansion: "Our clients all have access to principal-level advice led by senior advisers. And we don't try to 'broker' perhaps in the way some of the larger companies do. We do tell people how we see things and we don't give clients a load of flannel. We tell them honestly what are our views and stick to our guns. We do not pretend to be always right, of course, but it is honest advice."
Cuthbert says there have been plenty of highlights along the way. "Recruitment has been key. One was recruiting Jonathan [Webb], for instance, alongside others. At the start it was eight to 10 people and along the way some people have moved on and others have come in. Three of the original eight equity partners are still here. But we never wanted this business to be something we ran for a while and then allowed to fizzle out. We still have eight equity principals so others have come in and taken on the equity."
Webb adds that key has been actively seeking to grow by expanding with the right people. "Hanover Green launched in 2009 in the depths of a difficult time for the property market and a little bit then was survival mode. But by 2013 I would say things picked up strongly. We then set up the retail team in 2016 and that has gone from strength to strength, again with best-in-class principals advising on some of London’s highest profile real estate with a loyal client base who we continue to grow with."
The business started focusing on investment, agency and landlord and tenancy work. It added central London retail in 2017 when agents Martin Thomas and Luke Hargreaves joined to form a new retail arm, later adding several team members, including Matt Hyland who joined as a principal from Cushman & Wakefield in Novemberof that year.
Matt Hyland, principal in the retail team at Hanover Green, says ever since the inception of the retail and restaurants side of the business the focus has been on striving to pull together the best team focused solely on central London. "The business has now grown into one of the largest agency teams in the sector, with three new hires joining after the summer taking us up to a team of 12 experts.
"The USP is really our London estates work and understanding our clients’ long-term aspirations to create the most exciting and interesting destinations. As a team, we are working on areas such as Carnaby, Soho, Mayfair, Covent Garden, Belgravia and Old Spitalfields Market, some of those for more than 20 years. It's about attracting something different and firsts for London which in turn is about retaining the capital's reputation as the world's leading place for retail and restaurants."
Raven says building a diverse skillset has been important to ensuring there is resilience in the business.
"This has allowed us to continue to make a profit all the way since inception and through COVID for instance."
"We did not furlough any one in the professional team during the pandemic and we are proud of that," says Cuthbert.
Webb says that Hanover Green has "the best lease advisory team in the market, no question" and has helped "glue" the different areas of the business together.
The investment team has carried on billing throughout the recent market slowdown and is often able to bring in big fees to the partnership at useful times. "We we have a nice sales pipeline at present something that is thanks to loyal clients," says Webb.
In its first year, Hanover Green's involvement in the sale of the Covent Garden estate was a welcome example of how deals can help a business early on.
Legal & General paid the ING Covent Garden Limited Partnership £119.5 million for a portfolio of Covent Garden properties. Hanover Green acted with Rugby Estates in advising ING.
"The fee income meant that in the first three months all our start-up costs were covered," Cuthbert said: "It was never in doubt but still investment can make a big difference in helping a company be on the front foot."
Raven says the business has clearly been through a series of different market conditions since launch in 2009, not least the GFC and the pandemic, with 2013-16 a particularly strong period for market activity.
"The market now in central London at the top end is strong and there are very strong rents being achieved. But beneath that there is a middle that is quite stagnant and then at the bottom a lot of short-term deals are being done where space is cheaper. It is the middle of the market where there is low activity."
Looking ahead Webb says real estate is a dynamic and fast-changing industry and being a business focused on the sector is about adapting to what is happening.
"In offices there is a lot of repurposing to resi and business parks to sheds or maybe data centres for example and it is about looking at that demand."
Cuthbert says there will naturally be more prelets on bigger stock to make the numbers work given construction costs in particular.
"So tenants will need to make decisions two years out. More people who run a business want their people back in office, that is clear."
Raven says the trick is to grow with the market.
"Introducing retail was a game changer and that team has grown organically with senior very high end players. F&B is flying in that area for us now."
Clients Hanover Green is representing include Shaftesbury Capital, Grosvenor, BEAM, Howard de Walden and the Portman Estate.
Cuthbert says: "80 to 90% of our work is with the funds and whilst that is probably at the lower end at the current time, that figure really is the same for the amount of business that is retained. That is so important."