About Us

Abacus Office Finder

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We were established in 2000 by Nick Lahey-Bean, previously Head of Commercial Property Management at Savills Plc and subsequently Director of Real Estate (Europe Middle East Africa) at NCR Corporation.

The world was a different place in 2000, but some things never change - companies using commercial property were beginning to rebel against landlords who were insisting on unreasonably long leases - particularly in the UK.  Our clients were asking for advice on shorter term leasing options, and companies like Regus and MWB Business Exchange were pioneering the concept of short term fully serviced offices, not only in the UK but also in many other countries around the world.

In response to client demand, Abacus Real Estate found itself becoming an expert in this niche property market acting on behalf of both owners and occupiers.  We began to accumulate such a wealth of knowledge and information on business centres that we decided to make that information available through our website to anyone looking for offices in any of the main cities of the world.

In 2003 we were awarded "Property Agent of the Year" by the Business Centre Association for our work in the serviced office industry.  We believe this reflected our innovative and professional approach to the marketing of serviced offices and an appreciation of the quality of the advice we were giving to companies seeking office space throughout the world. Here's a small snapshot of companies that we have worked with to find the right property solutions.

Nick Lahey-Bean FRICS
0845 367 2020
nick@abacusrealestate.biz

Nick is a Chartered Surveyor with nearly 40 years of experience in the commercial property industry.  He has advised Pension Funds and both Institutional and Private Investors in the management of their commercial property holdings including Boots Pension Fund, Guinness United Distillers, The Welcome Foundation, Standard Life, Union Bank of Switzerland, Sumitomo Bank & Kings College Cambridge.

In addition he has provided consultancy advice to a broad cross section of companies who have used commercial property in support of their business.  These companies have included AT&T, British Telecom, Cadbury Schweppes,  Dun & Bradstreet, Ernst & Young, IBM, NatWest Bank, Otis Lifts, Reuters, Silicon Graphics, NCR Corporation, The Institute of Chartered Accountants and Avco Trust.

Helen Coleman
0845 367 2020
helen@abacusrealestate.biz

Helen has nearly 12 years of experience in the property industry, previously with Knight Frank, Protego Real Estate and MWB Group and more than 5 years with Abacus Real Estate.  She specialises in the London serviced office market and also advises companies looking for serviced offices internationally.

Helen's clients have included Dixons, The Brazilian Tourist Board, Exact Software, Success Appointments, Lee Hecht Harrison, Freescale Semiconductor, Flame Employment, SalesForce.com & Forex Capital Markets.

Amanda Hodsman
0845 367 2020
amanda@abacusrealestate.biz

Amanda has many years’ experience in the serviced office industry working predominantly for Abbey Business Centres (now owned by Regus).  She had several different roles in their Surrey offices, covering both operational management and sales in Weybridge and Redhill, where clients ranged from small start-ups to large corporates such as Experian.   In the City of London she sold offices in Abbey’s highly successful centre in the ‘Gherkin’.  Amanda’s clients there included Sky News, several UK and overseas banks, hedge funds and insurance companies. 

Game keeper turned poacher, Amanda’s experience of working on both sides of the fence is proving invaluable to our clients.  Her extensive knowledge of the way a serviced office works in practice means that Amanda is ideally placed to advise our clients on all aspects of their office search – she communicates well with serviced office operators, being able to see things from their perspective and consequently she is able to bring negotiations to a satisfactory conclusion for both parties.