Asset management teams are under pressure to deliver more value from their assets, as well as providing more ideas, and more tenant engagement, all whilst operating within tighter cost controls. But beneath those expectations lies another constraint: talent.
We spoke to James Harrop-Griffiths, Head of Asset Management, about why many businesses face a less visible challenge: finding and retaining the right people to manage day-to-day operations, generate new ideas, deepen sector knowledge and anticipate future trends.
Across the market, the same question keeps surfacing: how do you maintain business plan momentum when your team are at full capacity, and justification of additional recruitment is difficult?
For investors and developers, this isn’t theoretical. When resource gaps appear, performance is at risk, and pressure mounts. Lease events drift, asset plans stall, decisions slow down and opportunities to protect income or enhance value are missed.
Every agent or adviser can tell you a story of a decision being ‘stuck with the client’, what they don’t realise is there are hundreds of decisions on the desk of the client each day.
So why not recruit into your value creating teams? What is the barrier?
The most acute pressure point sits in the mid-level bracket of professionals with eight to 12 years’ experience who can independently run transactions, manage stakeholders and drive day-to-day execution.
That talent pipeline has narrowed significantly. Analysis from Madison Berkeley suggests a marked drop in shortlisted candidates through 2025, just as demand has remained high.
The reasons are structural. The long-term consequences of the 2008 global financial crisis reduced graduate intake across the industry, creating a smaller cohort who are now reaching mid-level. At the same time, the role itself has evolved. Today’s asset managers are expected to combine traditional property expertise with data analysis, ESG awareness, technology adoption and increasingly sophisticated strategy.
It’s a broader, more complex brief and there’s naturally a smaller talent pool.
The most effective organisations are responding on multiple fronts. They are being more precise about the skills they actually need and more open to talent from similar sectors where skills can easily be transferred. They are investing in retention and progression, recognising that rebuilding mid-level capability from scratch is slow and costly.
Crucially now, and a trend that will continue, they are also building flexibility into their resourcing models. Planned absences such as maternity or paternity leave and unplanned events such as long-term illness can create short-term gaps with long-term consequences if momentum is lost.
This is where outsourced asset management is evolving. It is no longer simply a bolt-on for additional capacity; it is a strategic tool for continuity.
When done properly, outsourced asset management provides experienced professionals who can step in quickly, take ownership and maintain pace whether for a defined six–to-12-month period or a less predictable absence.
The key to success is effective integration. A recent example is our appointment to manage a portfolio of four assets for Barberry, covering approximately 100,000 sq ft across the Midlands. The 12-month instruction will provide maternity cover but, more importantly, ensure continuity.
With existing relationships and knowledge in place, we were able to step in immediately and avoid the lag that often comes with short-term hires.
In a constrained recruitment market, outsourced asset management must deliver clarity and pace.
A back-to-basics approach through reinforcing the fundamentals of robust business planning, control over lease events and income risk, disciplined reporting and proactive stakeholder engagement.
But it should also deliver capability. Access to capital markets insight, repositioning strategies and integrated ESG expertise is increasingly difficult to build entirely in-house.
The mid-level talent gap will not be resolved in a single hiring cycle. The more resilient businesses will be those that combine smarter recruitment with flexible resourcing while building capability for the future changes within real estate.
That requires a pragmatic approach to be clear about what must sit in-house, for external expertise to add value and how to ensure portfolios keep moving regardless of internal change.
Momentum is everything and the cost of standing still is far greater than the cost of doing things differently.