The group has hired four London based bankers with real estate expertise to boost its corporate finance operation's debt advisory, loan servicing and fund raising functions, it was revealed at the MIPIM international property conference in Cannes, France.
'We're essentially trying to turn that whole area into a real estate merchant bank,' said Martin Samworth, head of the company's UK operations.
The move comes at a time when the UK commercial property market is buckling under the weight of billions of pounds of debts raised during the five year real estate boom that ended in 2007.
Four of the biggest companies have asked investors for £2.6 billion in the last month to cut their debt. There could be around £60 billion of real estate loans to be refinanced by the end of next year, according to Savills.
'If and when those loans go bad, who are they going to get to sort them out? The rationale was that we would. There's a lot to be refinanced, and not a lot to be refinanced with,' explained Samworth.
The fees that CBRE hopes to earn from its real estate banking services will replace some of the lost revenue from the collapse in the UK investment market. It is aiming for significant growth in that division over the next twelve to eighteen months.
'We concluded we needed to hire more bankers. And we're more able to hire them now than we were in the last four to five years, added Samworth.
Some of the UK's largest banks are starting to make enquiries about how to manage their substantial real estate loan books, said Samworth. They are considering solutions that include restructuring the debts and selling the underlying assets.
There were £207 billion of loans against UK commercial property assets at the end of last June, according to a recent lending survey by De Montfort University.