Trident Consulting, known as Cushman & Wakefield Ukraine – the country’s leading commercial real estate consulting company, will cease operations on July 31 this year, Nick Cotton, Managing Director of the company, said in Linkedin.
“It is with great regret that after 28 years of continuous operation in Ukraine, we have had to make this difficult decision. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year, the vast majority of current assignments were either canceled or suspended indefinitely. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, Continued work is simply not possible,” he wrote to Linkedin.
13 former Trident Consulting professionals have taken on positions in Cushman & Wakefield’s wider international network, he said.
“Some of the remaining former employees in Ukraine are creating a new consulting company under a new name, and we wish them every success. Our thoughts and continued support are with everyone who remains in Ukraine,” he wrote.
Cotton himself has returned to London and works for Cushman & Wakefield.
Cushman & Wakefield (New York Stock Exchange: CWK) is a leading international commercial real estate advisory and agency firm.
The attractiveness of the Ukrainian real estate market for foreign investors is growing due to a decrease in the number of quality assets available for investment in Europe, Cushman & Wakefield consulting company has said.
“The narrowing of the range of investment opportunities in mature European markets creates the potential for growing interest in Europe’s peripheral markets. We already see investment interest from the countries that are our close neighbors (Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia) and Ukraine has a chance to attract potential investors to its market,” the head of the capital markets department Cushman & Wakefield in Ukraine, Volodymyr Mysak, said.
According to him, the real estate market in Ukraine is undervalued: the possibility of rental growth is available in all segments of commercial real estate (offices, warehouses, retail space), and capitalization rates create attractive returns for investors.
“Capitalization rates for premium assets in office real estate are 12%, for retail space some 12.5%, and for logistics some 12.5-13%,” the expert said.
According to Cushman & Wakefield, in the fourth quarter of 2017 the European market attracted a record high volume of investments of EUR112 billion, after which the best quality assets across Europe are becoming increasingly scarce.
Cushman & Wakefield (formerly DTZ) was founded in New York in 1917. The company is a consultant in the field of commercial real estate with an annual income of $6 billion. Cushman & Wakefield operates in more than 70 countries, employing 45,000 people.
