Thomas Blencowe has been appointed as Director of Investment Sales, moving to Knight Frank. 

He has more than 12 years’ experience in commercial property, starting his career as a valuer before transitioning into sales.

His previous role was Director and Head of Victorian Metro Office Market Valuations and National Head of Data Centre Valuations for another international group. 

Thomas’ experience has seen him largely advise domestic and offshore wholesale and listed real estate investment trusts, superannuation funds, sovereign wealth funds, developers, syndicators and ultra-high net worth private investors.

The appointment follows the addition of four new agents to Knight Frank’s Investment Sales team in Victoria at the start of this year.

Langton McHarg (Partner, Head of Investment Sales, Victoria), Stephen Kelly (Director) and James Thorpe (Director) all returned to Knight Frank after working as Senior Directors at JLL, while Myles Neville also moved to Knight Frank’s Investment Sales team in the role of Senior Executive.

Mr McHarg said Thomas had been appointed at a time when Knight Frank’s Investment Sales team was preparing for greater transactional activity in the market.

“Activity has substantially increased now that Melbourne and regional Victoria have experienced a significant easing of restrictions,” he said.

“With free travel across the state, along with domestic and international flights opening up, we anticipate it will only get a lot busier for the remainder of 2021 and especially heading into the new year.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has only deferred demand since mid-2020, resulting in a number of both local and offshore groups being underexposed in Melbourne and therefore seeking to acquire a broad range of development and investment-grade opportunities across the CBD, fringe and metropolitan markets.

“Thomas’ appointment will provide for a further expansion of our team, and his unique skill set, being from a valuation background, will strengthen it.

“The experience and expertise of our collective Investment Sales team in Victoria will enable us to provide our clients with the best service and deliver results.”

Mr Blencowe said he was excited about joining Knight Frank, particularly at a time when the market was set to strengthen.

“Knight Frank is an appealing business to work for, as it has both global reach and local nimbleness which is a rare quality that our clients are seeking in this ever-changing world,” he said.

“I am joining a team in Victoria with extremely well-experienced agents and with my heightened level of analytical skills we will be able to unlock a greater number of opportunities in a market that is forever getting further sophisticated.

“We are finding more and more as we approach the end of the calendar year that large groups both locally and offshore are keen to get on with it, with an eye on long-term fundamentals, resulting in significant amounts of capital still eager to set themselves in Melbourne.