Property expert returns home to take charge of CBRE

Brent McGregor. Photo / Supplied

Brent McGregor has been appointed the new senior managing director for CB Richard Ellis in New Zealand, replacing Richard Horne, who has resigned after a three-year term and 14 years with the company to "take a break and pursue other opportunities".

McGregor returns to New Zealand after three years in Australia, where he has facilitated over $100 million of specialist property transactions a year.

He joined CBRE in Auckland in 2004 leading the national Valuation and Advisory Services team after five years at Ernst & Young.

McGregor was then promoted to a Sydney-based role running firm's Pacific Valuations team, working closely with another Kiwi, Mike Steur.

In tandem with this role, McGregor established a dedicated retirement housing and healthcare unit which is now one of the leading providers of specialist advisory and transaction services in Australia.

In 2002, McGregor was awarded the NZ Property Institute - Young Property Professional of the Year Award. Within 12 months at CBRE he was nominated to join the firm's Pacific region senior leadership board.

McGregor has a master's degree in real estate. He began his career as a valuer in Christchurch in the mid-90s before moving to Auckland.

McGregor will spend the next month reconnecting with CBRE's New Zealand clients and visiting all its offices throughout the country.

He says he believes some "medium-term challenges" face the commercial property market in relation to the New Zealand economy but says he is taking the reins at a time when CBRE envisages significant opportunities in the local property market.

"My expectation is that the next six months will see some slow improvements in business investment levels which will help our leasing business.

"This sort of activity always has the benefit of giving the investor community added confidence. Groups that acted quickly to patch up their balance sheets, with disposals and capital raisings, are now well placed to capitalise on emerging opportunities.

"Across the board, high debt levels are still evident, though, and in our business, bank and receivership instruction levels are still increasing ... and the expectation is for this to continue for another 12 months."

Tom Southern, CBRE's president and chief executive for Australia and New Zealand, says McGregor has a significant knowledge of the company's broader business, and particularly the professional services platform, "which is critical to the future growth of our New Zealand operations".

He adds: "We are looking to grow many new areas of business in this field to underpin and fuel our future growth.

"The transactional side of our business is very important, too, and Brent's local expertise, his involvement in significant Australian transactions and his broad skill set will ensure this part of our business is also well managed."