RESI Trailblazers will help build a stronger industry

The industry is still not doing enough to change this perception, to show the vast opportunities within this industry to those who wouldn’t naturally consider it. The battle for great talent needs to start in the school room and the property industry is not doing enough to inspire its potential next generation. Those in education now are exposed to such diverse career opportunities that the property sector is competing in a crowded market.

Rising stars

By acting as partner for Property Week’s RESI Trailblazers initiative, which will identify and celebrate the residential sector’s rising stars, we want to play our role in inspiring the next generation of talent and delivering innovation in the industry.

Our sector is changing rapidly, especially with the arrival of proptech, and it is right to praise those in the industry who are leading the way with a different perspective. But equally we must ensure that we continue to attract new talent.

We need to move to a more consultative approach, where everyone has a role to play in delivering solutions for clients. This calls for a change in mindset with regard to how we identify and train the next generation of property professionals.

One of our core business values is investing in people who will deliver on the challenges of the future – and having the right talent to do that is critical. We need to build talented teams from within and provide great career paths for our graduates, so that they can learn directly from the experienced teams around them.

We believe we can build teams that are more diverse, in age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social standing and gender.

Future relationships

Client relationships of the future will be based as much on cultural fit as commercial reality, so we need to build teams that will get to know clients and their businesses in the detail necessary to address the increasingly complex property market.

We want to be an integral part of driving the UK residential agenda. Property Week’s RESI Senate, which will help pull together the inaugural list of RESI Trailblazers, brings together influencers from across the market, providing the opportunity to review how the residential sector is placed and how we can drive it forward.

Our focus is central London and we know that this has never faced greater challenges politically, economically or in terms of international investment. This is why we want to be part of a programme that gets beneath the surface of these key issues and drives change.

James Gray is managing partner at Cluttons