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Andrew Teacher Bidwells is one of the UK’s oldest property businesses, well-known for its focus on life sciences, energy and natural assets. Yet far from resting on its laurels, the firm has made recent moves to amplify its existing capabilities, including advising on the growing market interest in operational real estate. Andrew Teacher speaks to chief operating officer, Kelly Bream, and Iain Murray, head of operational living.
Few businesses are able to celebrate their 185th anniversary, and still fewer make plans for their next 185 years, but real estate consultancy Bidwells is doing just that. To this end, it has launched a growth strategy designed to double the firm in size over the next five years.
Steering this ambitious plan is chief operating officer Kelly Bream. Bream studied property estate management at university and brings to her role experience at Berkeley Homes and a third party build to rent operator, as well as from co-founding a number of startup businesses.
Bidwells is perhaps best known for its work as the lynchpin of the science and technology clusters in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc. Bream says: “We created Cambridge Science Park back in the 1970s with Trinity College, so our experience in innovation real estate is certainly part of Bidwells’ DNA.” Since 2021, Bream estimates that Bidwells has advised on “probably 80% of the life sciences deals across the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.”
Bidwells’ hire of Iain Murray and his Cortland Consultancy team earlier this year boosted its capabilities further, with Murray joining as partner and head of operational living. Murray brings with him a decade of experience in the sector having advised on over £6.2bn in assets, alongside a wider 30-year pedigree across asset classes, including advising on £8bn worth of schools and hospitals while a Partner at G&T. The move comes as part of a wider firm focus on services relating to operational real estate.
Reflecting on the outlook for the living sectors, Murray says: “Of particular interest has been the sector’s adoption of whole life modelling and costing, with the industry gaining a longer view of procurement than it has traditionally had. Residential has been short termist, but we are now building a product that lasts.”
Murray believes that the key distinction between the build for sale and the build to rent markets lies in the latter’s “focus on the income side” and on “quality, environmental sustainability and safety.” He sees the benefit of Bidwells’ integrated expertise meaning it is able to transcend some of the siloed disciplines, avoiding friction between, for example, parts of businesses that focus on customer experience, cost management and sustainability.
He cautions against living sector operators focusing too much on the capital expenditure associated with meeting legislative requirements, such as the inclusion of second staircases: “What we are trying to do is make sure that people don’t focus too much on the capital side when really it is the revenue that generates the value in build to rent projects.” Beyond build to rent, Murray sees opportunity in specialist living sectors such as co-living and senior living. “They represent less than one percent of the private rented sector, but they have further to go in terms of their professionalisation, and the demand will increase owing to demographic tailwinds.”
Murray also...