We catch up with Theo Williams on his distinguished career of 33 years at Savills and L&T
"It is a competitive rotation for graduates, and I would encourage all Savills graduates to experience the team to enhance their career"
I retired from Savills on 31 October 2022 after 33 happy years, the majority spent in the lease consultancy team.
Lease consultancy includes lease restructures and renewals, rent reviews, lease surrenders and expert witness work for institutional landlords, property companies and corporate occupiers. It is a competitive rotation for graduates, and enhances their career – Helen Causer (Argent), Marcus Geddes (Land Securities) and Lucy Winterburn (SIM) have all been part of the team.
In 1987, aged 20, I started as a sandwich student on £7,500 a year. I loved the work hard, play hard culture.
I was interviewed by John Thorpe and Mike Kirkwood, and subsequently Jeremy Aitchison and Henry Angel-James. I recall the question, ‘Theo, what is the Bank of England Base rate?’. The answer was 9.38%. Inevitably, I got it wrong but I was better prepared for the second interview.
The year was a fantastic introduction to the commercial world. Monday morning meetings chaired by then vice chairman Peter Oswald were in the softly furnished Grosvenor Hill boardroom, with plenty of coffee and croissants, cigars and cigarettes. Key instructions included acting for the developer London & Edinburgh Trust on an emerging Fosse Park Leicester (rents sub £10 psf), and Bridge Street Plaza, Reading.
In September 1989, I joined the business space team as a graduate. To qualify as RICS, I needed valuation and lease consultancy experience. While I struggled to enjoy valuation, particularly at four abattoirs in the Midlands, I found my niche in lease consultancy, working closely with Charlie Mocatta – our friendship sealed by a driving incident involving the Duke of Westminster and papers scattered across Grosvenor Street.
The early 1990s were brutal. Savills share price hit 18 pence on 3 January 1992, Canary Wharf filed for bankruptcy in May 1992 and the Bank of England base rate peaked at 15% on 16 September 1992. It was survival of the fittest, but the decade proved to be formative.
The Board entrusted the lease consultancy team to Charlie Mocatta and Martin Durgan (both then in their late 20s), and to a lesser extent myself and Nick Taylor (both in our mid 20s.) With all core markets broadly over-rented, we employed independent catchment research to prove retail warehouse occupiers could afford to pay significantly higher rents.
Rental growth over 5 years of 50% plus was not uncommon. Having targeted landlords on a county by county basis, our ‘turnover rocket’ was launched. We secured instructions on high profile retail parks throughout the UK. Client friendships were established for life.
My last 10 years focused on lease consultancy within the business space sector, and it was fun to return to working alongside investment, agency and occupier services teams. Two of my last transactions were securing a lease surrender on 90,000 sq ft offices in Manchester to allow a re-development sale, and a successful lease restructure for Electronic Arts on their 75,000 sq ft HQ in Guildford. Iain Maxwell, Holly Tite and Henry Rudkin now have responsibility for business space within lease consultancy and make a great team.
So, it’s a huge thank you for a fantastic 33 years. I will be forever grateful for my time and to have made so many great friends. Savills has been both a family and financial bedrock to me, and I very much look forward to the alumni events ahead!
Y O U M I G H T A L S O B E I N T E R E S T E D I N . . .
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