Cambridge: Impact of the Drivers Jonas & Deloitte's merger

DJ Deloittes merger East of England agents give their view from focus features on Vimeo.

The merger of Drivers Jonas or Deloitte has caught the attention of agents across the country. Their marriage was the hot hot topic of conversation at our Cambridge reception last Friday.
Click on the video above to see what property players from around the region think.

Tim Latham, at commercial property recruitment consultants Prefio believes: "I think I'd probably be a touch more chipper about the prospect if I were a Drivers Jonas Partner or member of staff than if I were on the Deloitte side - but that longer term it's some of the ex DJ people who might need to be a bit more concerned.  Why?

• Both firms have good strong heritages and their brands have a good deal of value.  Drivers Jonas has more clout amongst property professionals but the Deloitte name has more clout with CEOs and "C-level" executives of major businesses.
• There is only a certain amount of really high level real estate strategy consulting that the market needs.  Deloitte's existing team though smallish was maybe at about the right scale to service that. An additional 600+ staff from DJ doesn't mean that the demand for high fee advisory work will expand.
• DJ partners and staff (whilst coming from a very good quality firm themselves) will likely be walking with a touch more spring in their step than previously - there is a certain kudos that comes with working for one of the "Big 4" - but beware.
• Unless Deloitte are looking to enter into lower margin work (unlikely) then in the medium to longer term some of the ex DJ Partners & staff might start to find life a bit difficult.  Let's take a guess and assume that the average DJ professional bills about half of the current Deloitte professional - there will presumably be a desire  over time to equalize those figures (to the higher level) and so you have either got to pedal twice as hard doing the same sort of work (probably impossible) or reskill / reposition yourself into much higher margin work (but the air gets a bit rarefied up there and there isn't that much work to go around).

For Manchester reaction click here.

For Leeds reaction click here.

For Birmingham reaction click here.