News

Asset Managers Drive Investment Market
Despite the economic downturn...more

Rockspring targets Staines and Leeds sites
Rockspring continues its advance on the regions this week...more

Planning consent for Huntercombe Park
An Exton Estates and SWIP joint venture has received planning consent for a 90,000 sq ft office development...more

LaSalle and Exton acquires 30 acre site in Manor Royal, Crawley
26.09.2011
LONDON 22 September 2011 – LaSalle Investment Management (‘LaSalle’)...more

Velocity Takes Off at Brooklands Weybridge
13.09.2011
Exton Estates, funded by Rockspring, have commenced construction on the striking new headquarters office development...more

Velocity Gains Speed at Brooklands Weybridge
25.05.11
Exton Estates, funded by Rockspring, have successfully received planning consent for a striking new headquarters office development...more

Exton in institutional funding double
Property Week 14.01.11
Exton Estates has secured funding for two south-east office developments that total 200,000 sq ft, as institutions continue to show appetite for development in the region...more

Race off the Recession - Property week 03.04.09
Exton Estates founders Stuart Bedford and James Mawson are toughening up to distract themselves from the horrible markets....more

Hammerson picks Exton in Staines - Property week 06.02.09
Hammerson has selected Exton Estates as development manager on a 60,000 sq ft office scheme in Staines, Surrey...more

French victory for punters - Property week 26.07.08
A gruelling cross-Channel cycle ride has been followed by a hot denial. After three days’ riding. The Property Punters team reached the Eiffel Tower...more

The Crunch Bunch - Property Week 23.05.08
Exton Estates director Stuart Bedford is less sanguine about the situation. ‘The credit crunch has definitely had an impact...more

Ain’t no mountain high enough - Property Week 05.10.07
They must be putting something in the water over at Exton Estates...more

Exton’s Essex Expansion - 05.10.07
Exton Estates has bought a site in Loughton, Essex, to develop a £50m data centre...more

Damian Hirst buys studio - Property Week 14.09.07
Damian Hirst has bought a new studio off the Old Kent Road in south-east London...more

Sheds - Small units - Property Week 23.02.07
Exton Estates, once a champion of the small-industrial freehold market, is now moving away from the sector towards freehold offices...more

Glengall gets consent - Property week 26.05.06
Royal London and Exton Estates have received detailed planning consent for the 100,000 sq ft...more

Rising in the East - Property Week 06.05.06
Bigging it up - Having quickly become experts in the “short sharp shock” school of financial operations, Exton Estates is seeking to spread its wings...more

Two up, four down - Property Week 19.11.04
Exton Estates, formed by two former Berkeley developers, has already notched up four lucrative warehousing projects....more

Two up, four down - Property Week 19.11.04

Exton Estates, formed by two former Berkeley developers, has already notched up four lucrative warehousing projects. Laura Chesters reports.

For a fledgling company with only four deals to its name, Exton Estates surprised many at the Industrial Agents Society Awards last month by being shortlisted as Industrial Developer of the Year.

Up against the giants of the shed world - Gazeley, ProLogis and Astral - Exton missed out on the gong but an impressed panel of judges bestowed upon it the accolade of ‘Highly commended’.

Former Berkeley Commercial Developments duo Stuart Bedford and James Mawson set up Exton in May 2002 and quietly amassed a pretax profit of more than £500,000 for the year ending 31 August 2003 from only their first deal at Basildon. Turnover for the period was £4.4m and net assets stood at £1.8m. When they submit accounts for 2004 at the end of this month, having completed another three deals, the figures are likely to be impressive.

But they do not shout about it. As Bedford says: ‘We like to get on with business. When we started out we didn’t want to make a big entrance; it was more about being focused on the job.’

‘Focused’ is a good description of this partnership. A tight team, Bedford and Mawson meet for breakfast every weekday at 8am to discuss tactics. For the medium term they want to remain in the private sector and enjoy the advantages of being in a small company - being involved in every deal and knowing what is going on in every area in the finest detail.

Director Kevin McGowan and finance director Richard Hutchinson complete the team; every other part of the business is outsourced. Bedford says working with other small businesses has been a key ingredient to their success. ‘We rely on repeat business,’ he says. ‘What we do is pretty formulaic, and using small firms who understand us is really important. We use a handful of agents and they bring us the deals.’

Both Bedford and Mawson completed land management degrees, at Reading and Sheffield universities respectively. Bedford spent his qualifying years at Knight Frank, and was at Berkeley for five years before he left to start Exton in 2002. Mawson worked at Capital Shopping Centres and Hammerson before joining Berkeley for 18 months.

As the senior development team at Berkeley Commercial Developments, Bedford and Mawson were involved in Portsmouths’ Gunwharf Quays retail scheme. They cut their teeth in the lucrative small-warehousing sector in 2001, on the Murrell Green scheme in Hook, Hampshire.

Berkeley Commercial Developments commercial development manager Nick Lee worked with the pair on both Gunwharf Quays and Murrell Green. ‘Murrell Green really planted the seed for Stuart and James,’ he says. ‘Berkeley was a great learning ground for both of them. There was a great team and we were free to bounce ideas off each other. They are great guys and are in touch with many from the Berkeley team.’

Bedford worked with the Berkeley Group chief executive Tony Pidgley on several deals, including Lattices’s Southall gasworks site in west London. Bedford says: ‘Tony is a great guy and I learned a lot from him. At Exton we are looking to emulate Berkeley’s quality. We want to do the best quality warehousing, just as Berkeley does the best quality residential, because quality sells.’

Exton’s first three deals were funded privately but its reputation for high levels of prelets helped it secure institutional backing for its fourth. Royal London Asset Management funded the purchase of Dolphin Point in West Thurrock, its third in the east London/Essex area. It has planning consent for a 77,000 sq ft (7,155 sq m) scheme of 14 units.

The efficiency of Exton’s planning and preselling strategy has enabled it to prelet or presell 29 units totalling 160,000 sq ft (14,865 sq m) since July 2003. Mawson explains: ‘ We always try to sell as quickly as possible to reduce risk. We run a twin track of planning and tender consultation to minimise the time nothing is happening on site.’

Despite all four of its big deals being in the small industrial sector, Bedford insists the company is not sector-specific. ‘With my experience in offices and James’s in retail and with us being such a small team, we can now follow the market, ‘ he says. ‘It is strong for small industrial at the moment but we can easily turn our experience to other sectors when the time is right.’

Exton is eyeing up sites along the A13 corridor, in Enfield and in the London boroughs of Barking, Dagenham, Rainham and Croydon.

Mawson says: ‘The industrial sector in the M25 London/Essex area is still very strong, and we can carry on doing two to three schemes a year for the next few years as the demand is still there.’

Holley Blake partner Nick Waddington, the agent for the prelease at Selco Trade Centre at Hanger Lane, says: ‘The freehold market is still the strongest and the interest rates are still good. It is more cost effective for occupiers and this is particularly the case for smaller units.

‘It is also attractive for small businesses. If they own the building they can make all the decisions on it and get the long-term investment from it.’

By offering fully fitted office space at many of its schemes, Exton has increased the price per square foot by up to 20% compared with other schemes.

Glenny partner John Bell, who has acted for Exton in the past says: ‘Competition between developers wishing to capitalise on the strong owner-occupier sector is fierce, resulting in some very full prices being paid.

‘As a consequence it is more important to maximise site density, which Exton has achieved by providing a mix of conventional light industrial units and high-quality two-storey business units.’

Pension Contribution
A key driver in the popularity of freehold units in the area has been the self-invested personal pensions (SIPP) market. As Mawson says: ‘Small businesses in Essex have appeared keener to invests in commercial property for their own personal pension funds ahead of other areas of the M25.’

However, upcoming changes in legislation are likely to have an impact on this. First, new pension laws coming into effect on 6 April 2006 will allow businesses or individuals to use their pension to invest in residential as well as commercial property. Second, a government white paper recommends the amount a firm can borrow against the value of a property should be reduced from 70% to 50%.

With interest rates likely to remain steady for the near future, and small freehold sites still proving popular in the industrial sector around the M25, Exton has every reason to look forward to next year’s IAS Awards.