Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| CRBE Korea CEO Don Lim. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
US-based firm aims to become industry inspiration next to Apple
By Jhoo Dong-chan
It has been a disappointing time for the nation's housing market. Home prices, especially in the Seoul metropolitan area, skyrocketed in the first half of last year thanks to massive real estate speculation, but started declining suddenly in the second half after a series of government measures to crack down on this.
Housing prices have yet to regain investor confidence. Market analysts based here and abroad are now coming up with a series of gloomy outlooks claiming prices are likely to plunge throughout the year.
Commercial property market
Contrary to Korea's sluggish residential real estate market, CBRE Korea's new head Don Lim said the nation's commercial property market has been solid and the trend will continue for quite a while.
"Like the residential housing market, investment is now one of the most important pillars in the commercial real estate market. Money constantly comes and goes in the market. Korea's commercial housing market has boasted a high return rate with lower risk for years," Lim told The Korea Times during an interview.
"Undergoing the 1997 IMF crisis and 2007 global financial crisis, the country managed to build strong fundamentals in the market. This is the reason why foreign capital is now very interested in investing in the nation's commercial real estate market."
Reflecting a growing number of startups and IT workers looking for a place to materialize their visions and innovative ideas, Lim added foreign investors are paying keen attention to Korea, especially to the nation's office market.
"It's, in fact, a global trend. More startups and young workers are looking for a productive space to study and talk about their ideas. CBRE Global has recently established its space solution service subsidiary, Hana," Lim said.
"Office leasing is one of CBRE's strongest-performing operations. Utilizing its knowhow in the business, Hana accommodates those market needs where startups can collaborate, adapt and thrive. Hana could launch its business in Korea if demand is high enough."
Along with the office leasing business, Lim said CBRE Korea is eyeing the nation's logistics market.
"E-commerce has become a driving force in Korea's retail business. An increasing number of customers are now buying items at online stores instead of physically visiting them," he said.
"E-commerce firms now must come up with a larger fleet of warehouses near metropolitan areas to meet such demands. I believe there's huge potential here. We will strengthen related businesses to cope with it."
Renovating office structure
CBRE Korea moved its office recently to the Standard Chartered Bank Korea building. It reorganized the office's entire structure to maximize staff efficiencies as well as demonstrate CBRE's business philosophy.
"It took about four months to design the office structure," Lim said. "Business efficiency is, of course, very important. But, we also wanted to consider our office as a showroom symbolizing our way of doing real estate business. Visiting clients like it very much."
Under a new working slogan of "activity-based working environment" CBRE Global is not just renovating its offices in Korea but has already refurbished other offices, including in Tokyo and Madrid.
"Each employee's creativity has become a really important asset even for a real estate service company like CBRE," Lim said.
"CBRE aims to become not only the world's No.1 real estate service company but also a firm that generates inspiration through industry and society, just like Apple and Google. We understand each worker's creative ideas could change the game. I'd like to do my best helping generate innovative ideas."
Career transition
Graduating from University of Nevada Las Vegas in Hotel Management, Lim started his career in the hotel business. He served various posts in global hotel brands such as ITT Sheraton Corp. and Hotel Shilla.
He then started his career in commercial real estate by joining CBRE Korea in 2005 as a capital market head. He has since stayed with the company.
"It was a very exceptional case. A global corporation usually appoints its head office official to an overseas branch CEO. There are not many cases in which a branch worker manages to get promoted to a CEO post," Lim said.
"It was 14 years only with CBRE Korea. I love the company. Everybody knows how much I love this company. When I was appointed to CEO in January, my staff were even happier than I was. Some even shed tears of joy. It was really emotional."
Lim added he aims to lead CBRE Korea as the top company in the entire commercial real estate business category in terms of revenue by 2020.
CBRE is a global commercial real estate service provider and investment company based in Los Angeles. It operates more than 450 office buildings worldwide and serves clients in more than 100 countries.
Generating annual sales of $14.2 billion, the firm is listed in the Fortune 500 and the S&P 500.
Founded in 1999, CBRE Korea, the local unit of the U.S. real estate consulting and management firm, concluded 20 sales transactions with a total value of $1.08 billion as of 2017.
It leased 590,000 square meters of office, retail, industrial and logistics facilities in that year.
