KNIGHT Frank continues to grow its Western Australia team with two new appointments.
Theo Smyrniotis has been appointed as partner and head of occupier services of Western Australia and Ken Henderson has been appointed as director, portfolio management, Australia.
Smyrniotis brings over 22 years’ experience, including the past seven and half years in valuation and tenant advisory at Colliers.
Henderson brings over 25 years’ experience in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia Pacific Region. He has recently returned to Perth from London where he worked as a director with CBRE in its global corporate services business for the past three years, responsible for clients including Boeing and MSD/Merck Pharmaceutical.
Knight Frank partner and head of WA Craig Dawson said both would be outstanding additions to the team.
“Both recruits have very extensive and well-rounded backgrounds in real estate, both in Australia and overseas, and their knowledge will be invaluable to our business by assisting us to provide the best possible service for our clients,” he added.
Dawson said the Perth occupier market has moved through the uncertainty of the COVID period better than most other markets, but local businesses were looking for strategic guidance in relation to occupation moving forward as changes to workplaces become permanent.
“Although WA occupiers have been impacted by the economic slowdown and there has been an imperative to manage costs, most corporates in WA were already running lean property footprints and weren’t caught with a lot of surplus space,” he added. “What we are noticing in regards to long term change however is that WA occupiers are becoming even more discerning and strategic in their use of the property they occupy.
“They are now actively considering the impacts of flexible working on how space is occupied, the role of the office in maintaining corporate culture, collaboration and innovation, how multi-site portfolios are arranged and how lease flexibility is maximised.
“Given the interrelationship between these and many other factors, corporates are seeing the value in accessing integrated end-to-end occupier solutions to support them in this new environment.” Dawson said.
