A TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS

Balian&Co. has a reputation for offering pinpoint accurate unbiased property advice.

 

We negotiate favourable heads of terms for all our clients. Our expertise can and will secure rent free periods, reductions in rates, caps on services charges and limitations on dilapidations liabilities.

 

Balian&Co. is recognised for successfully negotiating rent reviews for clients with senior RICS fellows acting on our clients’ behalf to minimise rent increases.

 

Our regular contact with the larger estates and councils in Central London have meant we can deal directly on behalf of those wishing to enfranchise and acquire the freehold of their buildings or change their use. We can inform you of what to expect long before instituting the proceedings on your behalf and advise you accordingly.

London Head Office

Emre Mengu Founder Director

Emre has over 20 years experience in real estate acquisitions providing tailored advisory solutions for his clients. Having studied Architecture at Cambridge University and subsequently his Masters in Property Valuation and Law at the Cass Business School, Emre has always sought to be fully conversant with all disciplines involved in the decision making process leading to the acquisition, construction and management of buildings. An early career path through the LVMH luxury group developed a keen understanding for how choosing the right interdisciplinary teams leads to winning results for unique niche brands and delivers the exacting client service to build long term loyalties. Balian was created with a vision to provide both governmental and commercial clients including family offices the very best of real estate advice and transactional support from one trusted professionally exemplary source wherever and whenever it is needed. He has recently been involved with the major restructuring of a number of foreign governments’ holdings in London with a view to creating modern sustainable portfolios.

Emre is fluent in English, French, German and Turkish.

Andrew Schofield Senior Surveyor

Andrew has over 30 years experience and is recognised by his peers and the UK Government as a trusted expert advisor. Previously Partner at Delva Patman Redler LLP he joins our firm via the Brittain Hadley Partnership and Conrad Ritblat, having founded Arena Property Services and Schofield Surveyors. He became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in 2014.

Andrew undertakes Balian’s conventional building surveying work often as Contract Administrator covering a wide range of disciplines from the inspection of buildings and preparation of reports for acquisitions and planned maintenance to construction project management and dilapidations matters for both landlords and tenants. He is also our principal advisor for “neighbourly matters” including party walls and boundary disputes. Recently Andrew has overseen the exit of the Institute of London Underwriters from their 150,000 sq.ft premises.

As well as providing advice to various RICS professional committees, Andrew regularly publishes articles on the subject of the Party Wall Act and is currently engaged in a UK Government consultation on a new Bill for the resolution of boundary disputes centred on a process of expert determination.

Michael Perlin Landlord & Tenant Advisor

Michael specialised in Landlord and Tenant matters. With over 45 years experience in the field as a chartered surveyor there is almost nothing he hasn’t seen or solved in that time. Whether rent reviews, lease renewals, arbitration or acting as an expert witness, Michael is well known and respected by his peers and the panels he gives evidence before. An appointed Independent Arbitrator and Expert Witness of the Dispute Resolution Service of the RICS Michael knows the potential pitfalls and can avoid them well before they ever get to an arbitration panel so that our clients consider themselves invariably well protected in his safe hands.

Mehmet Akseki Advisor, Institutional Investments

Mehmet is and an advisor, assisting with the financial side of institutional investments and asset management providing a key interface between the real estate specialists and family offices who purchase through Balian. As an investment banker he is able to advise on the financial merits of the purchases and managed asset portfolios to his counterparts thereby providing investment context for our institutional clients. From 2012 to 2018 Mehmet was with RiverRock coordinating the firms investment strategy through special purchase acquisition companies and later assisting with the establishment of its Capital Markets and Advisory business. Prior to this he was with Bear Stearns in London in their European Investment Banking team working with a number of high profile financial sponsors and companies. His former team at Global Securities saw Mehmet advising clients such as Lukoil, Tatneft, Mediaset, Imperial Tobacco Group and Globeground.

Simon Dorrington Head of Agency

Simon is Head of Agency for the London Office and responsible for overseeing the commercial development, leasing, acquisition and specialist surveying work for corporate and family office clients in the City and West End.

Simon joined Balian with over 12 years experience in investment acquisitions, disposals, asset management and leasing. He is known for compiling his own databases for Mayfair and Belgravia real estate with an interest in lease particulars, valuations and yields.

Simon has been involved in acquiring a building for the Nanjing Regional Government in Soho, a building disposal in Stukeley Street Covent Garden subsequent to the acquisition of the Royal College of Psychiatrists new headquarters in E1 subsequent to the disposal of their former HQ in Belgrave Square.

Simon is fluent in English and Spanish.

Aida Bratovic Architect

Aida has over 20 years experience in ultra high-end architecture and interior design with clients including royal Heads of State and some of the most recognised financiers in the world.

She studied at Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, under the tutelage of Simon Alford and Paul Monaghan.
Previously a director at Timothy Hatton Architects, internationally known for their most prestigious clients, Aida founded STUDIOAida in 2014, a boutique Architecture and Interior Design Studio that has gone on to win a number of prestigious awards. It is precisely this drive for excellence and her discrete approach to government clients that has led her to first advise and then go on to work with Balian including designing the Head Office in London and our MENA office in Istanbul.

Aida has extensive knowledge of working with Listed Buildings and English Heritage, providing complex but sensitive alterations quite often in a diplomatic setting both for embassies and ambassadorial residences.
She is a full member of Royal Institute of British Architects and British Institute of Interior Design.
Aida has a truly international outlook; Sarajevo born, educated in London, with her project experience spanning UK, USA, Italy, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Norway, Qatar, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia.

Aida is fluent in English, Russian and Serbo-Croatian.

Antonio Romeo Architect

Antonio has been a chartered architect in the UK and Italy for over 15 years with significant experience. Not only specialising in studio-based Building and Interiors Design but offering Planning Advisory complimented by Construction and on-site Supervision, Antonio is able to coordinate all major aspects of any build. A scion of a well-known family of architects, he continues their multi-generational tradition of winning design awards and competitions often for governmental clients.

His career began after qualifying at the prestigious Politecnico in Milan from where he went on to design private residential projects. Antonio then moved to London to complete his MA at Kingston and prove himself in a totally new competitive environment. He opened his own London practice Romeo Architects in 2018, focussing on planning and design whilst retaining an active role as director in the family architectural and engineering practice Romeo Associati in Italy. As project leader he won a number of prestigious competitions such as the renovation and extension of a historic civic building in Angera on Lake Maggioro and a new waterfront design for the city of Lecco on Lake Como. His latest projects include the maintenance of 6 large buildings simultaneously on the Cadogan Estate for one of our clients.

Antonio has a very broad European outlook to design whether for government or private commissions that is modern yet fully conversant in the traditional forms of construction prevalent in listed buildings. Antonio speaks English, Italian and Spanish.

Georgina Stewart Client Relationship Manager

Georgina has spent over a decade in the management industry working with high-net-worth individuals around the world. She is fully aware of what it takes to provide outstanding administrative services to clients expecting nothing short of excellence. Georgina has an impressive CV in property management and lifestyle services with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of London and the people that can make things happen for Balian’s commercial and diplomatic clients fast.

Georgina is fluent in English and French.

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