Savills has entered the Belgium and Luxembourg property market with the opening of a new office in Brussels.
It has poached two directors of fund and asset management business Prefimco Investment Management to head a new office in the country.
John Defauw and Gregory Martin will run the office as joint managing directors and grow the team.
Prior to setting up Prefimco, Defauw and Martin were respectively managing partner and partner of DTZ Belux Group.
The launch of the Belgium office adds to Savills’ existing global network of 180 offices and associates worldwide.
The opening comes in tandem with that of a new office in Cardiff, Wales that opens this week.
Juliette Stacey, chief operating officer at Savills Europe, said: ‘We recognise the Belux region as a significant economic centre in which it is important that we have a market presence.’
Defauw said:‘The Belux region is an exciting property market, with some highly established sub markets. We have identified lucrative opportunities for our clients to date, and look forward to working further with investors and developers to maximise their returns.’
Martin added: ‘Although the international economic environment is challenging for the moment, the Brussels property market should perform well. ‘
‘The office market has a large exposure to government and public institutions, at 50% of the 12.4 million sq m of office stock, and will provide a stable cash flow within this current environment. The Luxembourg property market, being mainly driven by financial services industry, offers similar long term healthy prospects.’