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What does your usual day look like?
My typical day starts at 5:30am when my wife and I get up and take the dog out for a walk. The first duty of the day before anything happens is coffee from one of our many local coffee haunts. Nothing happens before coffee. After this, all calls and emails are responded to that I didn’t get to from the previous afternoon/evening and appointments for the day are confirmed.
Before heading out, I allocate time to meet with my office leasing negotiator to go through his calls and follow ups for the day. This includes tenant enquiries, lease expiries and prospecting letters.
The remainder of the day typically involves property inspections with prospective lessees and meetings with existing and prospective clients.
How did you start your career in commercial real estate?
I had some experience with residential real estate in the UK as a property manager before emigrating to Australia in the mid-80s. When I first arrived in Perth, I got a job driving the delivery van for a medical supplies company. When a sales opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance and spent two years travelling the vast state of WA selling medical equipment and supplies to small country hospitals and medical centres, however I knew this wasn’t my long-term goal. An opportunity came up with one of the inner-city offices of one of Australia’s other large franchise real estate groups to be their dedicated commercial ‘guy’ within a residential office. Although I had no experience in Australia in commercial property, they must have liked something about what they saw and as they say, the rest is history!
What do you enjoy most about being a director at Ray White Commercial? What makes Ray White Commercial different?
Having spent 15 years at another national commercial agency, being part of the Ray White Group has been very refreshing. Having strong principles and family values is important to me and this gels well with the Ray White ethos. Having access to Dan, Michael and Vanessa at the ‘end of the phone’ for research is extremely important to office leasing, especially when we are building the department here in Perth. We get the benefits and efficiencies of a small business combined with the access to data and horsepower of a major real estate group. The best of both worlds!
What are your go-to property marketing methods that you present to your clients?
Personal service, attention to detail, regular reporting and a proactive approach to sourcing new tenants through an accurate and relevant database and direct e-marketing.
Tell me about a unique success story?
Leasing a brand new 5,000sqm office building in West Perth off the plans six months before practical completion at over $500/sqm, which at the time was a near-record rent.
Although we were paid the leasing fee, the tenant never moved in as the owner folded and could not fulfil his obligations. The partially completed building was sold to another developer by the receivers and that developer disappointingly appointed another agency to try and release the whole building as all obligations of the previous lease had been mutually terminated.
The new owners struggled to gain interest in the property partially due to market conditions and were becoming desperate. I introduced a tenant to them that I had sourced from tracking lease expiries that lead to a new 10 year lease over 2 floors that allowed them to move forward to practical completion.
What’s the one thing you know now, that you wish you knew when you first started out?
Never give up, don’t take anything personally and never assume anything.
What is your outlook for the market in Western Australia over the next 12 months?
The office leasing market in WA (Perth) will steadily improve over the next 12 months as tenant sentiment returns, however any improvement will be steady rather than spectacular. With a vacancy rate in Perth still close to 20 per cent, there is still an abundance of choice so tenants are still looking to properties with new or modern fitouts and high end staff amenities.
Contact
email: clive.norman@raywhite.com
phone: 0403 804 119
