JMW hits deals record worth £800m
SURUGING confidence in Britain’s commercial property market has spurred Manchester law firm JMW Solicitors to a new deals record.
JMW has revealed that the value of projects handled by its commercial property team since the start of 2012 exceeded £800m – more than double the figure registered for the previous three-year period.
The firm outlined how changes in the retail, development and care industries had proven “significant” for both deal volumes and values.
Partner Thomas Pearson said the increase in business had trebled annual fee income in three years, something which he attributed to JMW’s decision to invest in its property operations during the economic downturn.
He said: “The growth in the volume of work over the course of the last three years has been nothing short of tremendous.
“Within the broad resurgence in commercial property, we have been able to capitalise on subtle differences in how business is now being done in those individual sectors with which we operate.
“For instance, whilst general commercial and residential developments are performing well, we have become involved in a larger number of care home projects right across the country.
“I think it’s no coincidence that the decision to continue investing in our Commercial Property team has made us comparatively more able to capitalise quickly once the economy began to return to full health.
“That’s particularly been important in relation to the speed with which developers and operators have been trying to get deals done since. It seems that where they recognise potential, they have been keen to advance schemes as rapidly as they can before those opportunities disappear.
Pearson said that fee income had risen from £900,000 to just over £2.8m since 2012 both because of an increase in work and a trebling in the number of fee earners in JMW’s commercial property department (from eight to 24).
He described the acquisition by JMW in 2013 of the specialist property and litigation firm Goodman Harvey as “one of the strategic factors” influencing growth, adding that renewed activity among companies involved in residential development, investment and conversion had pushed the total for such deals over £200 million.
Industrial projects, investment, leases and secured property lending had also all seen “considerable” improvement, said Mr Pearson.
However, Pearson noted that particular growth had occurred in the care and retail sectors – each of which accounted for more than £150m worth of deals handled by JMW in three years.
