When markets get tough, good agents come into their own

Every transaction tells a story. Spend enough time in the market and patterns begin to emerge, not from reports published months later, but from conversations with occupiers, investors, lenders and landlords taking place every day. That is why, despite the headwinds facing commercial property, I remain optimistic. Challenging markets do not remove opportunity; they simply reward those who understand them best.

Securing deals against all odds

There is no escaping the backdrop. Borrowing costs remain elevated, occupiers are taking longer over decisions and transactions are often more complex to conclude. Yet these are the same conditions in which good agents earn their fee. When markets are flying, momentum can disguise the difference between advisers. When they slow, expertise, relationships and judgement become the difference between a property merely being marketed and a transaction actually being delivered.

Across BTG Eddisons' national Agency team, that distinction is visible in the volume and range of activity we see. BTG Eddisons was ranked by the now-closed EG Radius as England's most active commercial property agent by transaction volume for 2024, completing 803 deals across more than three million sq ft. That matters not because league tables are an end in themselves, but because every completed transaction adds to the live intelligence flowing through the business.

The same pattern has continued into 2026. During the first five months of the year, our industrial and logistics teams completed more than 600,000 sq ft of transactions across the East and South East, including more than £12.5 million of sales alongside a series of substantial lettings. Demand remains for the right property, in the right location, presented and priced with a clear understanding of the market.

Balancing raw data with real talk

Data tells you what happened yesterday, but conversations tell you what is likely to happen tomorrow, and that’s where being part of a larger organisation pays off. Hundreds of live discussions allow us to see where occupier requirements are changing, which locations are attracting investment, where pricing expectations need to move and which opportunities may never reach the open market.

BTG Eddisons’ acquisition of Kirkby Diamond was not simply about adding offices to a map. It extended the company footprint across the full M1 corridor and, more importantly, strengthened the links between our regional markets and London. Today we combine deep local relationships across Milton Keynes, Bedford, Luton, St Albans, Enfield and the wider South East with stronger connectivity into London's investment community, institutional capital and national occupiers.

That matters because investors do not think in county boundaries and occupiers rarely limit their searches to one location. Capital moves between London and the regions; businesses compare labour, property and infrastructure across multiple markets; and the best opportunities increasingly come from joining those conversations together.

Genuine local experts, connected through a national platform and strong relationships in London, can create outcomes that a purely local or purely centralised model often cannot.

Covering all bases

There is another advantage that is perhaps not discussed enough. Property has never existed in isolation from the wider economy. It follows business confidence, access to finance, refinancing activity, restructuring decisions and investment sentiment. As part of BTG, the UK's market leader in formal insolvencies and a leading integrated financial and real estate advisory group, we have a perspective that few agency businesses can match.

With company insolvencies in England and Wales currently totalling in at close to 2,000 a month, according to the Insolvency Service, our colleagues across financial advisory, restructuring, deal advisory and other specialist disciplines are speaking with business owners, lenders, investors and stakeholders every day, often before those conversations translate into property decisions. Combined with one of the country's busiest commercial agency departments, that gives us the ability not simply to react to the market, but to build a better-informed view of where it may be heading.