Surveyors look to build success with WSB

The Business Desk
10/06/09

A GROUP of Yorkshire property professionals have launched a full service commercial property consultancy.
The team behind WSB Property Consultants believe their experience and contact base will allow the venture to flourish despite the downturn.

Leeds-based WSB has been established by directors David Watson, Robin Beagley, Duncan Senior and Carl Smith.
Mr Watson and Mr Senior have left senior positions at the Leeds offices of Lambert Smith Hampton and CBRE respectively and are running the venture as they wait for Mr Beagley, who is also leaving LSH, and Carl Smith, a specialist valuer at Christie & Co, to join WSB.
WSB, which is working across the north of England, offers both professional consultancy and commercial agency services across a range of disciplines.

Investment expert Mr Watson said the venture had made a positive start thanks to the team's extensive client base and existing contacts.

Mr Watson, 31, said the four directors were not concerned about launching during a recession.

He said: "Other professionals we've asked have said this is the perfect time to launch. These recessions always bring out entrepreneurs and why can't it be us?
"This has all been about the aspirations of Robin and through dicusssions with him it's something we all want to do and it seems the right time.

"This venture has not been born out of necessity; it's a passion and we've gone for it off our own backs."
Mr Senior, 31, said uncertainty among the chartered surveyor community, with redundancies being made at established firms as companies look to cut costs because of the downturn, had also been a factor.

Mr Senior said: "There seemed to be good reasons to leave and put our expertise and focus on a new company when everyone else is losing focus.

"We're starting now and we intend to grow with the market."
He said he and Mr Beagley would specialise in office agency and other areas, such as industrial, at WSB.

"It's a full service offer," said Mr Senior, who added there was a gap in the Yorkshire market for niche practices.
Mr Watson said the team, which is funding the venture itself, believed the worst of the economic slump was over.
"If we didn't think it was starting to come around we would never have done this," he said.

"There are certainly deals out there and we have to work hard to get them done and to find them.
"The market is going to get better and we need to be in a position ourselves to make the most of it."
Mr Senior added that investors were being more "discerning" with their money but were still looking to spend.
Mr Beagley, 36, and Mr Smith, 34, are expected to have joined WSB by the end of June and the team has plans to recruit more staff as the business expands.