This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
SAVILLS has pulled off the recruitment of 10 new hires to its Victorian industrial team from rival JLL, in one of the biggest team integrations in its history.
It follows Cushman & Wakefield grabbing a 14-strong team from Colliers, headlined by prominent Melbourne-based agents Daniel Wolman and Oliver Hay.
Matt Ellis will lead the new-look Savills industrial team as state director, industrial, having spent over 25 years in the industry, most recently as head of industrial Victoria at JLL. He will be responsible for building and nurturing client relationships, advising on industrial sales and leasing transactions as well as identifying new opportunities in the market and providing senior strategic counsel to clients.
Joining Ellis are directors Matt Crofts, Mario Moscon, Anthony Cannizzaro, Tom Edwards and Danielle Tadi, as well as Arthur Vainbrant (associate director), Charlie Hodge (executive), Brad Synott (senior analyst) and Tegan O’Brien (manager).
A shift in appetite for industrial space in Melbourne from occupiers willing to invest in their supply chain, which has become more compelling due to economic headwinds, as well as a projected need for additional space as population growth returns to its pre-pandemic average, are among key factors influencing the new team’s recruitment, according to Michael Wall, national head, industrial and logistics at Savills Australia.
Melbourne is Australia’s largest industrial property market with more than 26,000 hectares of employment-zoned land, around 40% larger than Sydney’s industrial market.
“While record low vacancies in Sydney and Melbourne is limiting the churn of existing industrial floor space, the consumption of industrial land in Melbourne has historically been higher than other east coast markets,” Wall said.
Between 2019 and 2021, around 301 hectares of land was taken up in Melbourne compared to an average of 130 hectares per annum in Sydney. Based on Melbourne’s potential population growth of 1.2 million people over the coming decade, Savills estimates that “it’s realistic” the state will need about 4.8 million sqm of additional warehouse space to service the population.
“This represents a favourable forecast for our clients and the Victorian industrial and logistics sectors in general,” Wal said.
Ellis said, “There’s never been a more exciting time to be working in Melbourne’s industrial space”.
“More than $28 billion has been transacted in Melbourne over the past decade, and despite some cooling of overall investment volumes towards the end of last year, we’re still seeing a considerable inflow of capital to Melbourne’s industrial real estate versus that of, say the Sydney market.”
