ANZ CRE company expands into billion-dollar UK market

Forbury, the commercial real estate (CRE) valuation software company, has announced that it has expanded beyond Australia and New Zealand into the UK market and opened an office in London.

In accordance with this announcement, the company has appointed several employees to provide expert local customer and business support.

This includes Katy Medlock, head of Forbury UK, Ed O'Hanrahan, sales manager UK, Peter Rose, chief revenue officer and Ryan Spear, analyst.

The new international location for Forbury, the first for the company outside of Australia and New Zealand, follows an extensive validation study of the UK market during which time Forbury executives conducted interviews with CRE professionals, industry bodies, potential customers and complementary businesses, to better understand the unique needs and opportunities of the CRE UK valuations market.

In addition, Forbury conducted an extensive successful trial with customers using Datum, a specific UK acquisition product.

Datum provides fast cash flow analysis with entry/exit yields for office and industrial properties. It can be used to quickly assess current investment opportunities to enable investors to make informed, calculated decisions on which properties to pursue, the company states.

The tool allows investors to clearly see the viability of a transaction or an acquisition by combining cash flow, terminal value and entry price analysis.

Forbury states the company will apply the best of its technology, IP and market knowledge and match it to the local UK requirements through integrating Datum within its overall portfolio of solutions.

This will provide customers with a customisable, borderless, SaaS delivered, transaction and acquisitions product for global growth.

Forbury CEO Scott Wilson says, "We enjoy a number one market position in Australia and New Zealand which has taken decades to build.

"During this time we have learned what it takes to deliver a solution which genuinely deals with common challenges when analysing commercial real estate for transaction purposes.

"We believe now is the right time to take some of that learning and test markets beyond Australasia to the UK, one of the largest CRE markets in the world.

"Right now, we are focused on accelerating market momentum for Datum in the UK but In the longer term, we are setting our compass on taking Datum to a global audience.

Forbury states the company plans to tap into a UK real estate investment market, which according to The MCSI Real Estate Market Size 2019/20 was worth US$ 745.5 billion in 2019, the third largest in the world after the US and Japan.

The company has already signed up several medium-sized investment funds in the UK, including Clipstone and Northtree.

Forbury estimates that a successful entry into the UK will result in approximately up to ten additional personnel based in London with at least another eight new recruits being added to the team in Christchurch, New Zealand, to support the UK growth and significantly more should global expansion be realised.

The Forbury London office is located at 10 John Street, London, WC1.