Propex MD gets top European job at CoStar

Paul Marples has been given the top job at property information provider CoStar Group in Europe as it plans a rapid expansion.

Marples, managing director of CoStar-owned Propex, has been appointed managing director of CoStar’s European operations.

Marples’ first task will be to oversee the launch of CoStar’s Focus Agency, a database of office and industrial availability in the UK, in the autumn.

CoStar, which provides information services to commercial property professionals, bought Propex in February for around €22m (£14.9m).

In the US CoStar has created the largest online database of verified commercial property information and new technologies since it was founded in 1987. It plans to replicate this success in Europe.

Marples’ remit will include Property Investment Exchange which comprises the Propex, Shopproperty and Screenedata services as well as CoStar’s two other main UK services Focus Information and the Scottish Property Network, and its French subsidiary, Paris-based Grecam.

Marples said: ‘We will launch Focus Agency here and there is still significant room for expansion. We will also be enhancing the Paris product, which currently comprises listings for offices and industrial property.

‘The Propex product could be capable of becoming an international product, which we could take into Europe. We will follow the market demand in terms of locations, which will start with the established northern European markets.’

Marples will report directly to Andrew Florance, CoStar’s president and chief executive. Marples has 23 years of experience in the property industry, beginning at Weatherall Green & Smith in London and subsequently running its Madrid office. In 1996 he jointly set up Brown Cooper Marples, a London-based investment broker, and left in 2001 to join Propex full time.

Florance said: ‘Marples has demonstrated outstanding leadership, product innovation and operational expertise. These qualities will prove instrumental in achieving our goal of a unified European commercial real estate information service.’