Savills, the global real estate services firm known for tailored tenant advisory services, is taking another step to further its United States reach — this time by dipping its toes into residential housing sales.
The London-based company has partnered with The Beverly Hills Estates, naming the Los Angeles area team its exclusive West Coast residential brokerage affiliate. The relationship creates a referral pipeline between both firms' buyers and properties.
Savills, with hundreds of offices worldwide, has been building out its residential capabilities to complement its core commercial brokerage and advisory business as wealthy clients increasingly invest across multiple countries.
A big piece of that market comes from the United States, according to Savills Head of Global Residential Victoria Garrett.
"Our clients are globally mobile," Garrett told CoStar News in an interview. "We're not looking to open up our own residential businesses. We're looking to have associations with best-in-class brokerages in the U.S."
Garrett said The Beverly Hills Estates is exactly that. The boutique brokerage led by agents Branden and Rayni Williams focuses on high-end residential sales in Los Angeles, giving Savills — which had previously offered only commercial services in the U.S. — an entry to the nation's luxury housing market. For The Beverly Hills Estates, the partnership is designed to grant the brokerage broader exposure for its listings and more direct access to international buyers.
While The Beverly Hills Estates team focuses on residential, they've brokered some major office deals in recent months. The firm represented retailer Alo Yoga in its purchase of two office buildings in Beverly Hills for a total of $170 million.
“The luxury buyer is global, and so is the conversation around where people want to live, invest and spend time,” Branden Williams said in a statement Thursday. “Savills brings an extraordinary international platform, and we bring deep West Coast market knowledge, relationship capital, and a marketing engine built for the top end of the market.”
Network of wealthy buyers
The partnership takes advantage of Los Angeles' status as one of the top destinations for global luxury capital, alongside markets such as New York, Miami and London, with affluent buyers continuing to target trophy homes, new construction and architecturally distinctive properties despite higher interest rates and slower overall home sales.
At the same time, there's been debate over whether high-income residents are leaving California due to taxes and cost of living, though the state continues to attract significant wealth and international investment, particularly in coastal luxury markets like Beverly Hills, Malibu and Bel Air.
That push-and-pull, however, comes with the territory, according to Garrett, who emphasized that the partnership is not bound to just the West Coast.
"Markets ebb and flow, but we’re building a long‑term relationship here," she said. "It’s not just inbound or outbound — it’s wherever that client might be looking.”
Indeed, even as Los Angeles continues to attract global buyers, many of its own high-net-worth residents are increasingly deploying capital overseas, purchasing second and third homes in markets such as London, Paris, Milan and Dubai as part of broader wealth diversification strategies. Garrett said Savills has seen a strong demand from U.S. buyers for properties in the picturesque Cotswolds region of south-central England, for example.
Savills isn’t the first global firm to rely on local partners in Los Angeles, where real estate services firm Knight Frank has worked through U.S. affiliate Douglas Elliman to tap into LA’s high-end housing market.
Global brokerages such as Newmark and JLL regularly market high-end residential developments in markets like London, Dubai and Mexico to their U.S.-based clients; still, they typically rely on local brokerage partners or affiliate networks to transact those deals on the ground, reflecting the relationship-driven nature of residential sales in each country.
On the commercial front, Savills is also growing to become a bigger player in the U.S. real estate services scene. The company last month struck a deal to buy Eastdil Secured; the combined companies would rank second globally for real estate transactions above $100 million, and No. 1 in the United States.
Savills operates in Los Angeles out of a 20,000-square-foot hub at 1900 Avenue of the Stars in Century City; The Beverly Hills Estates runs its business out of a 3,347-square-foot office — that includes a members club — along Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.
Partnership maintains discretion
The ultrawealthy clients at the heart of the Savills and Beverly Hills Estates deal seek lifestyle flexibility, currency hedging and, in some cases, more favorable tax environments.
Taken together, that reinforces a two-way flow of capital in which Los Angeles serves not just as a destination for global wealth but also as a launch point for U.S.-based clients to invest in prime residential markets around the world, Garrett said.
More than that, though, clients demand a bespoke experience centered on privacy.
Garrett said both the Savills and Beverly Hills Estates teams have their own networks of high-net-worth individuals and off-market properties. That said, the partnership will create a wider pool of prospective buyers and properties without jeopardizing the discretion that comes with a more boutique brokerage.
"We have a global referral platform where agents can securely share listings off market within our network," Garrett said. “This partnership strengthens both our positions and allows us to offer the best possible service to our clients, wherever they’re moving from and to.”
This story was updated April 3 to remove a reference to a partnership between Christie’s International Real Estate and Carolwood Estates.