Asset Managers and Funds on 12.3% of London Real Estate Deals

Anyone sizing the London real estate lawyers market should start with who the clients are. Sartori & Partners data show that over 3 years, asset managers and funds were clients on 12.3% of the 487 dated real estate deals with London lawyers on them, against 4.2% of the 550 in New York. Real estate companies sit at a similar level in both cities. The difference is the investor client, and it should shape how a London real estate group is staffed. Hiring tells a separate story: lateral hiring into the London cell held flat (-10.1%) on a settled 12-month count, while hiring in the practice as a whole rose 7.9%.

The real estate client share is almost level between the two cities: 55.6% in London against 57.3% in New York, a gap of 1.7 points. The asset-manager share is not level. At 12.3% against 4.2%, the London share is 2.9 times the New York one. Financial sponsors sit close together, at 6.8% and 7.3%. Each share counts the deals that involve the industry; a deal can carry more than one industry or none, so the shares are not a split of the work and do not add to a whole.

London as a city leans toward fund work on the hiring side too. Funds and investment management accounts for 6.9% of all London lateral moves over 12 months, an index of 164 against the market, where the market's own share sets the base of the index. Against the practice, the London real estate cell holds 10.1% of its moves. For a firm building in London, a real estate partner who also acts for asset managers and fund investors matches the deal flow. A bench modeled on New York, where those clients sit on 4.2% of deals, is built for a different client base.

The practice's own deal figures run on a different window, and that matters for how they are read. Across the market, Sartori & Partners counted 1,409 dated real estate deals over 12 months. Asset managers and funds were clients on 11.1% of them, real estate companies on 59.0%, and hospitality and leisure on 5.0%. These are 12-month shares, while the London and New York client figures cover 3 years, so the numbers are not a like-for-like gap.

Rank is a fairer test than the size of the share. In the London list and in the practice's 12-month list, asset managers and funds come second, behind real estate companies. In New York they trail financial sponsors at 7.3% and hospitality and leisure at 4.4%. On a matched 12-month window, London real estate deals were 12.2% of the practice's dated deals, and the dated deal count across the practice rose 9.6% year on year. Inside the city, real estate is 11.6% of London's lateral moves, an index of 109 against the market. The point for a hiring partner: in deal terms, London is the city where the investor client is part of normal real estate work, not a niche.

Deal types confirm the picture from another side. Over 3 years, 79.1% of London real estate deals were property transactions and 6.0% were M&A, the only other type large enough to list. In New York the next types after property are banking and lending at 7.3% and disputes and investigations at 5.1%. Across the market, on its 12-month window, disputes and investigations come after property at 6.0%, with M&A at 4.3%. The M&A thread fits the city around it: corporate and M&A is 23.3% of all London lateral moves, an index of 113. A London real estate lawyer who can run the property side of a corporate deal covers the second line of work the city's deal list shows.

Hiring has not followed the practice's rise. On settled 12-month windows, lateral hiring into London real estate held flat (-10.1%), with 152 moves against 169. Hiring in the practice as a whole rose 7.9%, from 1,409 to 1,520. Hiring across all practices in London held flat (-2.5%), from 1,387 to 1,353. In the newest 12 months the cell counted 151 lateral arrivals.

Partners make up more of the London cell than of either comparison: 32.5% of its moves over 12 months, against 28.9% across the practice and 29.3% across London. Partner hiring in the cell held flat (-21.9%), on 50 partners against 64. The data show no cause for the flat count, only the count itself. For a firm planning a London real estate partner hire, movement in the cell is not growing, so a search works through lawyers already in seats and the timeline should be planned for a steady market, not a rising one.

The client mix is the brief. In the Sartori & Partners lateral database, asset managers and funds sit on 12.3% of London real estate deals over 3 years, so a candidate's record with investor clients is a first screen, not a bonus. The lawyers who moved lean less to finance work than in New York: real estate finance was the focus of 25.7% of London real estate moves over 3 years, against 48.7% in New York. A firm that wants fund-side finance skills in London should expect fewer movers to carry them and should look at transactional lawyers with investor clients as well.

Partner demand in the city is already above the market's weight. Real estate is 12.8% of London partner moves, an index of 116 against the market, while the practice as a whole places London at an index of 109 for all levels. With hiring flat in the cell, three steps follow. Test investor-client experience early. Treat M&A crossover as a plus, since M&A is the second deal type in London. Budget time for a market where the count of moves is steady rather than growing.