News from around the German agencies

News in July from around the international real estate brokerage groups in Germany includes a new department at DTZ to beef up the practice’s “Retail Investment” advisory  business, and the streamlining of Colliers under its new unified name across its German offices.

DTZ is making a fresh assault on the retail advisory segment with a new division to accompany its ‘Office Investment’ and ‘Industrial & Logistics Investment’ teams. The agency has hired Jörg Neunzig who arrives with two decades of retail experience at City Projekt Immobilien, Kempers and Comfort. Along with Christoph Scheuermann and Dominik Ising, Neunzig’s team will operate out of DTZ’s Düsseldorf and Frankfurt offices.

German retail real estate investment was the second strongest sector in the first half of this year, at €3.85bn (compared to €5.5bn for office investment). DTZ’s own research for Q2 suggested that demand for retail assets was actually as high as for office, particularly for shopping centres, but was stymied by lack of available product.

Meanwhile, all those Colliers double- and triple-barrelled names are about to disappear as the company unites under its owner First Service, which is pushing through a new unified corporate identity. Gone are the German regional offices of Colliers Schauer & Schöll, Colliers Bräutigam & Kramer, and Colliers Schön & Lopez Schmitt – to be replaced by Colliers International München, Colliers International Stuttgart, Frankfurt Düsseldorf and Berlin.

The divisions are also adopting the new name, such as Colliers International Valuation & Advisory, Colliers International Hotel, etc. Colliers International Deutschland has 216 employees across its 6 German offices.  The Toronto-listed First Service has now converted its previously franchised German branch offices into fully-fledged subsidiaries.