Relocation- What's happening in Japan and Asia

Today, Brookfield announced that they have acquired Prudential / Pricoa's real estate and relocation business in a bold move that puts Brookfield at number 2 behind Cartus. Cartus itself last year acquired "Primacy", and in a bold move from regional to global relocation we have also seen Santa Fe acquire Wridgways in Australia and Interdean in Europe.

So, we are definately seeing some movement in the relocation space, but how do I see things from a relocation perspective in Japan and Asia?

I am feeling 3 strong areas of change.

1. The Big Are Getting Bigger
Cartus, Brookfield and Santa Fe are great examples of the big getting bigger. You can add into their space SIRVA, and you have the big guys in relocation. Large multi-national companies generally will choose one of these big panthers to handle relocation management, especially if you have 1,000 or more people in terms of your mobility population. The big weren't so big, 2-3 years ago, back when we had Primacy, GMAC and Interdean as seperate entities, and weren't so well defined. Other players such as Weichert, MIGroup, Paragon were also in the mix, and although it was known that some were bigger than others, there wasn't a great deal of space between all of these companies back then. Now, there is, and my gut feeling is that the smaller relocation management companies will begin to struggle, unless they have a very focussed area of specialty. I would describe our friends at "Weichert" as doing an excellent job with this- they know exactly who they want to be in relocation, and they are not trying to be Cartus or Brookfield. This is not the case with many of the RMCs I see. In Japan, we are seeing more and more business coming through the big panthers, and less and less business from the smaller global relocation companies.

2. Regional Relocation Increases
In Japan, over the last 12- 18 months, we have felt a definate increase in business from regional relocation providers. Before becoming "global" Santa Fe was a good example of this, but we are now seeing an increase in business from our Asia Relocation Networks, from our European Relocation Networks, and indeed from our US Relocation Networks. Being able to provide a "regional solution" is becoming an important relocation tool. This means belonging to meaningful regional networks; in our case NCompass / Orientations and TIRA in Asia, and maintaining good relationships within the region, and with other regional providers outside Asia.

3. Moving Back to Direct Providers
We knew that the values of a good "direct relationship" would be discovered eventually, and after bad outsourcing experiences that complicated and added little value to the process, we are seeing certain types of clients interested in going back to the good old direct way of doing things; faster, more transparent, more flexible...... good old "relationship" business.

We are gearing up for more and more of 1, 2 and 3 in 2012.

All the very best for the festive season!

More Than Japan Housing, More Than Japan Cars and Furniture, More than Japan Serviced Apartments, More Than Japan Destination Services, More Than Japan License Conversion, More Than Japan Information!
The H&R Group is MORE THAN RELOCATION!

www.morethanrelo.com