Savills Australia poaches two JLL executives to launch Capital Advisory division
Savills Australia has established a Capital Advisory division after poaching two executives from rival JLL’s Sydney office.
Ben Jackson and Andrew Cottam (pictured, top) have joined Savills as directors, with their focus on providing clients capital raising services, and advisory.
Mr Jackson has been a director of JLL’s Debt Advisory division for six years. Prior to that, the executive worked with Lend Lease.
Mr Cottam also worked at Lendlease, as well as Macquarie Group.
He has directed JLL’s Debt Advisory division for two years.
Mr Jackson and Mr Cottam recently arranged the acquisition finance for the Super Prime Distribution Centre transaction at 99 Sandstone Place, Parkinson, about 19 kilometres south of the Brisbane CBD.
They also advised for a commercial office reposition of 31 Queen Street in the Melbourne CBD.
Savills chief executive officer Paul Craig said the creation of a new department will allow the agency to broaden its capability “and provide capital raising services and advice to clients on how to manage and structure their financing for the acquisition or development of an asset”.
The changing business of Australian debt funding
With regulatory changes attracting new domestic and global lenders to Australia, debt funding is having an increasingly significant role in real estate transactions.
“Several new lenders have entered the Australian market due to the shift in risk appetite from traditional lenders, opening up opportunities for new lenders to compete,” Mr Craig added.
“With the relative attractiveness of…debt returns, we have seen investors in Australian real estate with significantly more debt options to navigate and select from”.
Mr Craig said this increased competition, coupled favourably currency exchange rates, is “in part” pushing asset values higher in limited supply markets such as Sydney and Melbourne.
“Recent history suggests a 4 per cent yield differential to 10-year bonds as a trigger point for investors to chase property assets,” Mr Craig said.
“This highlights the potential for further capital value appreciation as bond rates remain low for longer and investors look for superior yielding, lower risk assets as opposed to more traditional equity and growth assets”.
