About
Professional Summary
I am a Director within the Occupier Services Tenant Advisory Team in Sydney. I am highly focused with a commited work ethic and pride myself on securing great results for my clients. I am consistently recognised by my clients for providing unparralled customer service.
I have 12 years global experience in corporate real estate and property & asset management providing me with invaluable insight, knowledge and understanding of both the landlord and tenant's perspective.
I specialise as a Tenant Advisor and have worked with a range of occupiers both in Sydney and across Australia succesffully delivering a range of tenant focused services including; market research, restructuring existing lease, site identification and evaluation, lease negotiations, subleasing and disposal strategies and providing strategic consultancy advice.
A sample of my clients include: Microsoft, Michael Page, Okta, Splunk, FTI Consulting and CHU
Prior to joining Colliers I worked with Europe's leading investment trust, British Land, as well as several indepedant funds. I was also seconded to British Airways as part of CBRE's Global Corporate Services team and managed their global real estate portfolio and was instrumental in securing considerable cost savings across their leased portfolio.
Accomplishments
2019 Spirit of Enterprise Award
2019 Outstanding Professional Services Award (Australia)
2019 Outstanding Revenue Achiever
Testimonials
Sarah Hughes was a tremendous help with sourcing and securing our new office in Sydney. ON24 is head quartered in San Francisco and we relied on Sarah and team to manage the process of the lease and its requirements. Working with Colliers is one stop shopping which made the logistics of an international move smooth with Sarah being on the ground playing point. She offered great recommendations of vendors to work with that helped ON24 meet our tight turnaround schedule and allowed us to stay within budget. Sarah Hughes has incredible follow through and is a pleasure to work with.
Mary Daquioag, Senior Director, Global Procurement & Facilities Services
Recently, my team and I at First Advantage worked with Sarah Hughes of Colliers to handle the property search and lease negotiations for our Sydney office. I would rate Sarah a 10/10 on the entire experience. Sarah at every stage was extremely prepared, organized and thorough. She helped us simplify and manage the complexities and was assiduous in the negotiations. As a result, we were able to secure a fantastic property at a very compelling rate and Sarah spared us from the many pitfalls and mines strewn through the process. I recommend Sarah very highly and would not hesitate to work with her again.
James T. Heeney, Head of Australia and New Zealand, First Advantage
“The dynamic duo of Sarah Hughes and Gemma Nicholas did an outstanding job in securing a property for us in Sydney CBD. They nailed the brief that was provided and got us a property that will help us grow the business in the local market. The professionalism shown is a credit to them and the Colliers International organisation. No task was too much, which made the whole experience far smoother. Don’t be fooled by Sarah’s nice smile – she is a gun at negotiation and ensured we got the best possible deal as she drew on a real depth of local market knowledge and experience. I would have no reservations recommending them to other businesses and will be sure to look them up for our future requirements“
Peter Beveridge, Chief Operating Officer, The Lido Group
Thank you for your extremely high level of professionalism, service and judgement throughout our recent market search and ultimate rental renewal. It really was impressive. I deal with many service providers across a range of industries and I can certainly say that you have conducted yourselves at the “next level”. Your market search and subsequent attention to detail when presenting comparative lease terms and conditions etc was a real point of difference. You narrowed the field quickly and appropriately then negotiated on points that were most important to us as the client and when the going got tough in the documentation and execution stage you took the lead and navigated us through to where we needed to get to. You played our hand well and we are very grateful.Thank you and well done. We will be back!
David Adnams, Chief Operating Officer Asia Pacific, FTI Consulting
“Sarah and Joe recently helped our business find a new head office in the Sydney CBD. Our business needs were unique and not easy to meet; requiring a sizable property space in a limited part of the CBD that could combine our two offices onto one shared floor. Throughout the process, Sarah and Joe were both extremely well prepared and therefore knowledgeable about the properties we viewed. They also exceeded our expectations in the final lease negation process. We always felt as if we were their only client and they ensured they were always available for questions. We have now successfully moved to our new premise and we could not be happier. Ultimately, Sarah and Joe helped us to not only find a new space, but create a new work environment. We would recommend Sarah and Joe without hesitation”.
David Rose, Chief Finanical Officer, Scottish pacific
“Sarah and the Colliers Team have done an exceptional job working closely with us over the past year to identify and negotiate a new commercial lease for our organisation in Sydney CBD. Throughout the whole process, Sarah was able to guide us through the key considerations we should be taking into account with each option we looked at, and support our final decision-making. It would have not been possible for us to secure such a great result in relation to our new lease accommodation without Sarah’s advice over the past 12 months. Thanks Sarah for a job well done!”
Yasser El-Ansary, Chief Executive, Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Limited
"Sarah Hughes has recently been helping us with our search for a new office, and I wanted to take the time to share with you what an incredible experience it has been. Sarah has been responsive, diligent, and adaptive, and have provided one of the best customer experiences I have had at a corporate level - ever. She is a credit to Colliers, and based on her alone I will recommend Colliers to my peers. You're very fortunate to have an employee like her, and I wanted to make sure her efforts did not go unrecognised.""
Greg Prescott, State Manager - NSW/ACT, Assure Programs
"Faced with negotiating a settlement for the compulsory acquisition of our office block and finding new space, we appointed Colliers International as specialist advisors. At their pitch, we were impressed by their market knowledge, experience specific to our needs and a business-like approach that instilled confidence, all underpinned by an alertness to commercial realities. As it turned out, our expectations were exceeded from Sarah Hughes running the project faultlessly to achieve great outcomes. Besides being the central point of contact between advisors, a negotiator of resolve and source of expert advice, Sarah was a trusted business partner with an invariably positive and cheerful style. She was always ahead of the agenda and, crucially, available as and when required: implicit throughout was that our interests and needs were Sarah’s priority. The result was a constructive settlement of compensation for our forced office move and, within increasingly tightening availability in the Sydney CBD, Sarah also found and secured office space to meet Peoplecorp’s very specific requirements. Sarah Hughes and Colliers International did a brilliant job in an at times quite frustrating context that makes for an unreserved recommendation to others".
Andrew Price, Partner, PeopleCorp
“We were extremely impressed by Sarah from the initial process of understanding our needs and requirements, shortlisting of options, inspection arrangements, negotiations with relevant landlords through to execution of the lease and handover of the premises. Sarah not only delivered cost savings well above our expectation but also diligently provided us related services during various decision-making points to overcome the fact we were not present in Sydney. Without the assistance of Sarah we would have struggled to secure an office in a dynamic leasing market. We are 100% sure we made the right decision!”
Arthur Wang, Senior Vice President and designated Chief Representative, CTBC Bank