To lunch with an old real estate analyst buddy. It’s been a while since Soph and I looked after a listed propco – and tbh there’s a fair amount of admin and low-grade work that doesn’t suit a company as small as ours – but it’s good to hear about the listed sector again.
The messages are: the number of analysts continues to drop, as do meetings with clients (ie buyers of shares) because of MIFID, which means clients now have to pay for those meetings. Like Mipim, no one knows what those five initials stand for.
Back in the day, clients would happily pay for meetings with PRs. Our monthly retainer would include £1,000 for a monthly meeting – two people, charging their time at £250 an hour. A one-hour meeting and one hour of travelling to and from the client’s office. But not anymore. Clients count every penny.
You could have a bumper couple of months, sending out three or four press releases, followed by a month when nothing happened, and the client would say: “Henrietta, we just been invoiced for £9,000 for the next three months and we’re concerned the amount of work you’re doing doesn’t justify that fee.”
Things are OK for us at the mo, but we are concerned. It seems like real estate is carrying on fine despite all the wretched news elsewhere. Surely, it can’t continue?
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