Real estate consulting market doubles in 2007

The leading players on the real estate consulting market managed to preserve their turnover growth rate last year, after the revenues of the top 5 players reached 50 million euros, double the results witnessed in 2006, and four times higher than in 2005.
Despite the entry of new players onto the market, such as Jones Lang LaSalle and Coldwell Banker over the last 2 years, the top 5 consulting firms remained almost unchanged, after the two fourth and fifth ranked companies swapped place – Echinox and Regatta.
As for the top two players, Colliers International and Eurisko, they left the others far behind, after Colliers derived almost 5 times higher turnover than the third ranking company, Cushman & Wakefield, which fell 10 million euros behind the second-ranking player, Eurisko.
The overall market revolved around 60-70 million euros last year, including, apart from the top players, another ten companies with turnovers that ranged from 0.5 to 2 million euros.
Consultancies doubled their revenues amid a record year for the real estate market, which saw the start of numerous projects and deals worth over two billion euros.
Considering how 2008 started, with reservations both from banks and investors as well as homebuyers, the growth rate is now expected to slow down, with the market estimated to amount to no more than 100 million euros this year.
In fact, Eurisko budgeted a turnover growth rate of 40% in its yearly report, while Colliers announced a 30 million-euro estimate at the beginning of this year, up by almost 50% against 2007.
The start of the year was also marked by changes in the shareholder structure, with the most important move being the acquisition by American-based CB Richard Ellis of local firm Eurisko Consulting, in a deal worth around 24 million euros.
On the other hand, Cornerstone International, the company that previously held the franchise of CB Richard Ellis, was taken over by Atisreal, a division of the French-held BNP Paribas.