SREC Flashcards
You say you have experience advising on property portfolios and strategic projects - can you explain how?
Portfolio review & scoring matrix - family portfolio, retail disposals
Telecoms providers - supporting non-cognate professionals eg. access requirements
Project management - prioritisation system (Landlord contact example)
Reducing costs - e.g. Solihull site blocker example
How do you go about understanding clients’ core business strategies?
Meetings - be curious - understand goals, targets, challenges
How is the team/business performing against their goals/targets?
What challenges are arising? What is preventing progress? How are they currently approach such hurdles?
How have you helped clients reduce costs?
Solihull blocked site example
Access had been planned, contractor arrived and the neighbouring site (car garage/depot) had cars blocking access
The Landlord had approved access prior but was on holiday and advised he couldn’t deal with the issue until he returned - as such, the upgrade would have to be aborted
This would cost upwards of £5,000
I also noticed a renewal was on the horizon, and through previous meetings with the client, I knew timely renewals were of upmost importance, and that new ‘code’ renewals meant these were getting delayed
I advised the client that enforcing access rights in a situation like this could damage the relationship with the landlord, making the upcoming renewal a challenge
I suggested a one-off payment to appease the Landlord and have the situation resolved
Contractors were able to get on site, saving £5,000+ in abort fees, and potentially saving time & lawyer’s fees on the renewal further down the line
Renewal completed in a timely manner
How have you helped clients meet their strategic goals?
Best example would be my project supporting a telecoms client meet their 5G upgrade targets (Network Operator Access example)
I supported a team with a target of 60 upgrades per month
A number of these at any given time would be considered ‘blocked’ i.e. a landlord isn’t providing access - could be anything from outstanding renewal/rent review, outstanding rental payments, landlord has their own works, landlord unable to be contacted, landlord has changed etc
My role was to remove the blocker
This meant building a relationship with the landlord to come to a solution, or leaning on rights within the lease
Set up a system to contact all sites one month in advance, this was to confirm correct details, process and advise of plans to attend site
Sites that threw up issues were prioritised, or pushed back a month and replaced with a new site
This means we had sites ongoing to ensure target of 60 was achievable
I was on the project for 3 months and we were able to hit the target each month, including hitting 75 in the final month (end of financial year)
What are some analysis techniques to analyse strategic real estate data?
SWOT analysis
PESTLE analysis
Scoring Matrix
When else might a Strategic Real Estate consultant be required?
When might Strategic advise be provided to a client?
Managing occupational requirements (if they need less or more space)
Portfolio reviews
Cost reduction exercise
Their current office is no longer fit for purpose
Location change
To comply with sustainability initiatives.
What is the role of a Strategic Real Estate Consultant?
Working with senior management to ensure an organisation’s assets are delivering against its business strategy and objectives (both current and future).
Why is Strategic Real Estate important?
Property is usually the second highest business expense behind staff.
The SRE consultant often works closely with wider professionals, and advising non-cognate professionals (often at senior level) such as an organisation’s board members.
Tell me about your involvement with the provision of strategic consultancy advice to clients.
One example is my review of a family portfolio (portfolio analysis example)
Family portfolio who weren’t property professionals, had their own careers etc
They wanted to reduce the size of their portfolio and in particular their exposure to secondary retail assets
We had a meeting to define ‘secondary’/the type of assets they wanted to dispose of
We concluded that the most important elements were the property’s location/marketability to occupants, the current tenant covenant and the years remaining on the lease.
I produced a matrix analysing each property by this criteria
Out of 9 retail properties, identified 3 that met the criteria
Tell me about your Network Operator Access Example?
I worked with a telecoms operator client to help them achieve 5G update targets
I supported a team with a target of 60 upgrades per month
A number of these at any given time would be considered ‘blocked’ i.e. a landlord isn’t providing access - could be anything from outstanding renewal/rent review, outstanding rental payments, landlord has their own works, landlord unable to be contacted, landlord has changed etc
My role was to remove the blocker
This meant building a relationship with the landlord to come to a solution, or leaning on rights within the lease
Set up a system to contact all sites one month in advance, this was to confirm correct details, process and advise of plans to attend site
Sites that threw up issues were prioritised, or pushed back a month and replaced with a new site
This means we had sites ongoing to ensure target of 60 was achievable
I was on the project for 3 months and we were able to hit the target each month, including hitting 75 in the final month (end of financial year)
What was the advice you provided?
(Network Operator Access Example)
The team weren’t property professionals - they were engineers/project managers
I was able to advise when we could and couldn’t rely on the lease terms to get on site
I also set up a spreadsheet tracker marking each site as ‘on track’, ‘blocked but resolvable’ and ‘delay’ - this enabled client to forecast numbers, and swap in new sites to replace the blocked/delayed sites
What lease terms would you refer to?
Generally under Rights schedule
Would often advise right of access at all times and for all purposes
Rights without charge to inspect, maintain, repair, renew, replace, add to, alter, substitute, upgrade
Sometime would specify 24hr or 48hr notice
Sometimes would specify approval required from the Landlord (NTBUWoD)
What was their key objective for the strategy?
(Network Operator Access Example)
Key objective was to reach 60 upgrades per month
Also very important to avoid abort costs as these could be £5,000, £10,000 or even higher
How was your advice presented to the client?
(Network Operator Access Example)
I produced a spreadsheet that highlighted which sites were on track/blocked but resolvable/delayed
The tracker was accessible by all stakeholders and client
Contractors would mark when equipment/MEWP/cherry pickers had been booked, where they were at in the process, if timelines were being met
That way everyone had oversight over each site
Tell me about your Landlord contact example?
One landlord for the network operator that had over 300 sites (operate canals and rivers around the UK)
Generally rural sites with access required through third parties e.g. farms, businesses, pubs
The client looked after a team who worked on outages for masts. Outages are big important issue for network operators - really important to fix quickly
They identified that this landlord hadn’t been updating access contacts for some years, and were having issues attending sites that had suffered outages
Came to Cluttons to resolve over 300 sites ASAP
I advised that in my experience, this can often take time to resolve, contacts can be hard to establish, difficult to reach etc
Therefore we should prioritise sites - P1, P2, P3
P1 was sites that needed to be attended immediately (outages, new equipment required etc)
P2 was sites where access was required in the coming months
P3 was all remaining sites
We were able to get the client onto all P1 sites (20 or so) within 2 weeks
And updated details for all remaining sites within 2 months
