Knight Frank: Leveraging professionalism, integrity for sustained growth
From a small and humble journey that began with the management of pockets of properties belonging to notable conglomerates in Nigeria such as John Holts, UAC, Leventis among others, Knight Frank has, over the past 50 years, grown to be not just an epitome of professionalism, but also the leader in providing real estate services and consultancy.
The company, operating from its headquarters in Lagos as Knight Frank Nigeria Partnership, has grown to be one of the largest firms of estate surveyors and valuers in Nigeria and across Sub-Saharan Africa with very strong footprints in property management, estate agency and valuation in both residential and commercial property.
In line with the growth and dynamics in the Nigerian property market, the company also offers property development and planning services which is growing part of our business in which they meet national and international developers’ needs through specialist advice on issues such as demand, supply, investment returns, values, funding and design.
They advise clients on marketing strategies, funding and pricing with a view to generating optimal returns and for larger projects, they carry out comprehensive feasibility studies, ensuring that risk is mitigated at all times.
“We started from a small beginning but have since 1965, when we opened for business in Nigeria, expanded and grown and we attribute our growth to our high-standards of professionalism, commercial acumen and integrity”, said Joseph Ojo-Osagie, a retired Senior Partner at a media briefing on the company’s golden jubilee celebration held in Lagos at the weekend.
Ojo-Osagie, who joined the company in 1968, pointed out that it has grown to become what he called “an eternal oak”, stressing that the story of the growth of the company would not be complete without about the mutual trust, determination and untiring efforts of the pioneer staff.
Knight Frank Nigeria is part of Knight Frank LLP—the world’s largest independent residential and commercial property consultancy—and, according to Albert Orisu, the Senior Partner and CEO of the company, the company has grown its branches to a point where such branches control some zones.
He explained that the Lagos branch controls controlled the whole South West, Port Harcourt branch controlled the South South and the South East, while the entire North was controlled by Abuja branch.
“Knight Frank is a large global family and we have benefitted from our link with other members of this family, especially in the area of valuation; we have 21 offices in nine countries in Africa, and 370 offices in 55 countries of the world”, the senior partner disclosed, explaining that the branch network was meant to add value to their clients investment.
Continuing, Orizu said, “our shared goal lies in improving operations, maximising returns on investment and adding value throughout long-standing partnerships”, adding, working closely with owners, occupiers, developers and investors, our commercial and residential specialists are members of Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), adhering to the highest levels of industry code of conduct, at all times”.
Knight Frank has sustained its growth by leveraging the emergence of new cities which has seen high rise buildings springing up everywhere for reasons of growing population, urbanization and static land size.