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Savills plc
Savills is a global real estate services firm that advises property owners and occupiers and manages buildings and investments for them.
Savills is a real estate services company. It does not mainly buy buildings and sit on them hoping prices rise. Instead, it sells advice and legwork to the people who own, occupy, and invest in property — helping them buy, sell, lease, value, and run buildings.
Its business spans several kinds of work. Transactional advisory covers the dealmaking: helping a client sell an office block, find a new headquarters, or buy a warehouse. Consultancy is the thinking work — valuing properties, advising on planning, and crunching market data. Property and facilities management means Savills actually runs buildings day to day, handling maintenance, security, and the small army of tasks that keep a site functioning for its occupiers. And investment management means it looks after property funds and portfolios on behalf of investors. The customers are property owners, occupiers, and investors, and they pay Savills fees for expertise and reach. A landlord selling a big building wants a firm with buyers in many countries, so a global network matters. That reach is Savills' main selling point: it operates across the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America, so a client can get the same firm's advice whether the property is in London, Hong Kong, or Sydney. Its closest rivals are other big real estate advisory firms such as CBRE and Jones Lang LaSalle, plus many smaller local players.
One thing to understand about this kind of business: it is cyclical and transaction-driven. When interest rates are low and deals flow, advisory and transaction fees swell. When rates jump and property deals freeze, that revenue can fall sharply, which is exactly what the sector felt in recent years. Savills has leaned on steadier, recurring businesses like property management and investment management to cushion the swings. It listed on the London Stock Exchange in the 1980s and is headquartered in London, and its results get watched as a read on the health of global property markets.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026