One of the best ways to flourish in the office brokerage business is by treating customers a little bit differently, instead of it being a standard commercial association.
“Knowing that we’re in a relationship business and not the transaction business, that’s very important. That’s the foundation of the way that I do business,” said Katya Shabanova, senior vice president at Cushman & Wakefield Inc. in Toronto.
Shabanova was recently named the SIOR Canada (Society of Industrial and Office Realtors) 2024 Office Broker of the Year.
“It’s a great honor to win that award as it’s a very prestigious award in our industry. The other nominees in that category are very strong brokers so this was very meaningful to me,” Shabanova told RENX.
The personal approach to helping clients thrive has been nurtured during her 12-year career in commercial real estate, which she entered after graduating from Western University.
George Tetter, Shabanova’s mentor
During her time at Cushman & Wakefield, colleague George Tetter has been one of her biggest boosters, according to Shabanova.
“We started off as an associate and senior-partner relationship, but over the years, have become more equal partners,” she said. “He’s a very well-known broker in the industry.
“He created a lot of the concepts that we work with today, things like net-effective rent that were not a concept before his time, so he’s really a changemaker in the Canadian commercial real estate and office leasing field. He’s been my mentor for the whole time that we’ve worked together, for 12 years.
“He taught me pretty much everything I know about commercial real estate and he has been instrumental in my success.”
As vice-chairman, office, at Cushman & Wakefield in Toronto, and with a career spanning 45 years, Tetter has seen first-hand how Shabanova has grown into a top contributor.
“She takes this job to a whole new level. Whatever the challenge or assignment, she’s so determined to do the right thing and exceed expectations, whether it’s with colleagues or clients or landlords,” Tetter wrote in comments emailed to RENX.
He knew early that Shabanova had what it takes to succeed in the sector.
“From Day 1, she was different. It’s the way she interacts with clients and really cares about service delivery; the content of the message and how it’s received and absorbed,” Tetter wrote.
Shabanova’s bespoke approach to clients
Shabanova’s approach encompasses more than just a strict, transaction-oriented manner.
“A lot of what we do is not just transactional but very strategic, very portfolio-oriented,” she said. “We look at city strategy, country strategies. It’s almost like a consulting job (rather) than a transactional broker job in a way, which we pride ourselves on, calling ourselves consultants.”
Over the years, her team has helped a diverse roster of “sophisticated players” find office space for a wide range of occupiers including financial institutions, law firms and telecommunication companies. But each client should be handled in an exclusive manner, she said.
“Every client has a unique set of fingerprints. They all have different needs and often in our industry you say, ‘Oh, it’s a law firm. I’ll treat it like another law firm and just swap a logo on a deck and send it in.’ We do not do that. It’s very important that we understand our clients’ needs and that we tailor our approach to our specific client needs. I think that doesn’t go unnoticed,” Shabanova said.
While every client has a different set of challenges, they look to brokers to guide them to the right destinations, which can at times lead to friction. But that is part of the relationship.
“They hire us to be experts. They work with us to get our professional opinions on certain things that we do, and sometimes it’s totally okay to push back on them, or to provide some controversial or innovative opinion that maybe others haven’t thought about and a lot of our clients respect,” she said.
What makes a ‘great office broker’
Shabanova believes there are three aspects to becoming a great office broker.
“It’s all about building relationships and our clients really feel the difference when you’re trying to truly help them instead of just closing a deal,” she said.
In addition, being culpable is vital to show the client that you stand behind your advice.
“It’s very important for our clients to see that we are accountable, that the deal ends with us and we take full responsibility for anything that goes wrong, that also goes a long way.”
Finally, being humble and curious are keys to improving and “never being stagnant and never thinking that you are the best in the business and nobody can catch up,” she said.
“Always trying to find ways to do things differently, do things better; relate better to our clients, to their needs, and just generally innovate in the way we do business, in the way we service our clients every day.”
What she forecasts for 2025
As she looks ahead, 2025 seems bright for commercial real estate players after some difficult times during and post COVID.
“There are a lot of mandates on the street, active tenants in the market. I think there is more confidence among tenants and landlords of some type of assets that are very optimistic,” she observed. “Tenants are starting to think about spending capital on improvements so it feels much better than it did even six months ago.”
The uncertainty around back-to-office mandates is basically over, according to Shabanova.
“Most occupants know what the future looks like for them, whether it’s two days a week, five days a week, three days a week: there’s a lot more clarity on that. We’re not really having these conversations as much.
“I also think the market generally is picking up and what is happening in Toronto – and I believe it happens across major markets right now – is there has been a huge flight to quality.”