Article | Adaptive Spaces
Art of the lease: How Rachel Vincent uses integrity to win tenants
In an intensely competitive industry where the stakes are always high, Rachel Vincent’s unique leadership is shaping the future of real estate for the better.
December 16, 2024
Leasing 10,000 square metres of office space in a single transaction is no easy feat for any property professional, especially in one of the country’s most competitive office leasing markets like Sydney.
While Rachel Vincent can now claim this accolade alongside an extensive list of industry achievements spanning more than two decades, it remains worlds apart from her earliest career stint.
“I haven't told anyone this story, but my side hustle at university had nothing to do with property. I was an aerobics instructor, and I came third in the state in an aerobics competition.
"You had to be able to do one high kick to your ear, a one-armed push-up, the splits, and crunches all in a 10-minute routine. It was a real thing where people used to compete in aerobics,” she laughs.
Prior to her induction into the gritty underworld of aerobics instructing, an intense work ethic was already being forged. A younger Rachel would find herself labouring on the family’s rural property, erecting fences and picking fireweed seven days a week under the harsh Australian sun.
“We're from a country farming background so I'd be on my horse mustering cattle and I still had a lot of netball commitments, to my dad's disdain. He really wanted me to be available for a muster or pony camp doing the barrels, drafting, jumping and dressage. And I did all that, but I just had this passion for competitive sports - and that became netball.”
When she was selected for her eighth team in a single season, Rachel’s concerned mother eventually pulled the pin.
“You can only do so many things,” she concedes. “But I've always been one to juggle a lot.”
As CBRE’s Head of NSW Office Leasing & Managing Director of North Sydney, she has closed leasing deals for some of Australia's most prominent office owners including Deicorp, Dexus, Lendlease, JQZ, Mirvac and countless more.
She is also responsible for leading a team of over 70 property experts at CBRE, assisting owners in optimising their assets while creating iconic buildings. Her major role extends into developing marketing strategies for office projects, sourcing prospective tenants, securing pre-commitments, and negotiating and finalising commercial terms with major occupiers.
And if that doesn’t live up to the multitasker status yet, she also gives back to the community as a volunteer lifesaver at the Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club, is on the parent committee for her son’s grade, and serves on the board of Women’s Community Shelters. She’s also an active voice for positive industry change and equality as Implementation Leader for the Property Council of Australia’s Champions of Change Coalition.
How did she go from teaching aerobics to the loftiest heights of commercial real estate?
It all began with her father who was a stock and station agent who moved into real estate and then development. His side hustle was farming, but that eventually became the real hustle.
“When you're sitting around a dinner table and you're hearing about negotiations and terminologies, you find it all interesting and it kind of becomes your calling.”
The family’s work would see Rachel move around often – thirteen homes and three different high schools to be exact. The upside of the constant uprooting would be that she learnt how to make friends fast.
"I always enjoyed meeting new people and love to know everyone's story. That's what really inspired me to be in property,” she says.
Getting her foot in the door as a research analyst for a valuations group, Rachel’s daily fact checking of comparable evidence with real estate agents quickly allowed her to see where the real action was. With a fresh degree in hand, she cold called the managing director of a major real estate company to ask if she could have a shot at industrial property. They conditionally obliged. If she was any good, she could stay. If she wasn’t, she’d be gone. So, she learned to canvas.
For the uninitiated to the industry, canvassing involves real estate brokers focusing on potential tenants or vendors. This can be achieved by door knocking, but in Rachel’s case it was picking up a telephone a hundred times a day.
“It just took one person to notice and say, ‘You sound like you’ve just made a hundred calls,’ for me to understand the importance of always maintaining my energy when communicating. You live and learn.”
The aforementioned 10,000 square metres of office leased to NSW Health, and most recently 5,159 square metres for Lendlease, are just two recent examples of many.
“We're in a really tough leasing market, but I've managed to assist Lendlease with pre-leasing two major tenants that were not represented at the time. For me it was canvassing tenants and getting them engaged early on while showing them the attributes of those buildings. To be able to get almost 50% away to two tenants in a very tough market, I think our client is super appreciative of that.”
Even the early days of competitive team sports have seemingly played a crucial role in how she leads her own teams today. It’s a constant reminder for her that winning isn’t only a personal affair.
“I love seeing my teams win work. I like it when they are succeeding, and I love it when they get that deal across the line; I get so excited I make them ring an office bell even if they really don’t want to,” she says.
“I want everyone to get behind everyone else and feel the energy. For me, it's about that collective feeling of winning and succeeding. And to get to that point I need to make sure that we've got the right tools, the right platform and the right mindset to go in to win.”
It was 1995 when Rachel became one of only a handful of women working in Australia’s industrial property sector. She has fond memories of it and muses over how work got done during a time before computers.
“We had one big binder book with typed up listings. We’d photocopy them and take them with us or fax them. And somehow or another, without an electronic diary or mobile phones, we met people on time.”
With good mentors supporting her, Rachel is grateful for her inclusive workplace back in those days, but there were still instances where she had to fight for her rights.
“There were always shenanigans like people coming in and changing fee splits. You’d know when they changed them because they used Liquid Paper to erase it and cut my split from 40% to 25%. That’s when the boxing gloves go on and you have to fight for what’s right. None of it was fair and you had to fight for fairness.”
Fairness is a concept that Rachel understands in the workplace now more than ever. Her experience has motivated her to demonstrate a proactive type of leadership that’s shifting the needle towards a better industry for all future employees – including women.
“This business is super competitive. It's who's the fastest and most proactive wins. It's a high stakes winner-takes-all kind of scenario.
“That’s why finding and championing fairness in our industry is so important to me, especially when some women have to go home and do their second job as a parent.
“What I like about being on the Property Champions of Change today is that I'm still fighting for fairness. It’s about encouraging a diversity of thinking, and it’s this diversity of backgrounds that eventually benefits the property industry by nurturing more opportunities for economic growth.”
“I’ve learnt to distill it, compartmentalise it, and move on. Maintaining a high level of service to ensure you continue on an appointment or maintain a client relationship is critical in our industry. Provided you have performed, having perspective is also important - it's not life or death.
“Especially as every building project right now is challenging. That’s why we maintain constant communication across all our projects almost every day to make sure owners know exactly what we’re doing for them.
“It's ensuring they know we're leaving no stone unturned while articulating why something may not be working and coming up with alternative strategies as quickly as possible.
“It’s the criteria I follow innately, but at CBRE we have a great process in making sure that no one should ever be dropping the ball.”
Proof that all that netball eventually paid off.
While Rachel Vincent can now claim this accolade alongside an extensive list of industry achievements spanning more than two decades, it remains worlds apart from her earliest career stint.
“I haven't told anyone this story, but my side hustle at university had nothing to do with property. I was an aerobics instructor, and I came third in the state in an aerobics competition.
"You had to be able to do one high kick to your ear, a one-armed push-up, the splits, and crunches all in a 10-minute routine. It was a real thing where people used to compete in aerobics,” she laughs.
Prior to her induction into the gritty underworld of aerobics instructing, an intense work ethic was already being forged. A younger Rachel would find herself labouring on the family’s rural property, erecting fences and picking fireweed seven days a week under the harsh Australian sun.
“We're from a country farming background so I'd be on my horse mustering cattle and I still had a lot of netball commitments, to my dad's disdain. He really wanted me to be available for a muster or pony camp doing the barrels, drafting, jumping and dressage. And I did all that, but I just had this passion for competitive sports - and that became netball.”
When she was selected for her eighth team in a single season, Rachel’s concerned mother eventually pulled the pin.
“You can only do so many things,” she concedes. “But I've always been one to juggle a lot.”
Raised in the trenches of real estate
Marry a serial multitasker with an insatiable appetite for competition and winning, and you’re left with a minor blueprint of today’s Rachel Vincent.As CBRE’s Head of NSW Office Leasing & Managing Director of North Sydney, she has closed leasing deals for some of Australia's most prominent office owners including Deicorp, Dexus, Lendlease, JQZ, Mirvac and countless more.
She is also responsible for leading a team of over 70 property experts at CBRE, assisting owners in optimising their assets while creating iconic buildings. Her major role extends into developing marketing strategies for office projects, sourcing prospective tenants, securing pre-commitments, and negotiating and finalising commercial terms with major occupiers.
And if that doesn’t live up to the multitasker status yet, she also gives back to the community as a volunteer lifesaver at the Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club, is on the parent committee for her son’s grade, and serves on the board of Women’s Community Shelters. She’s also an active voice for positive industry change and equality as Implementation Leader for the Property Council of Australia’s Champions of Change Coalition.
How did she go from teaching aerobics to the loftiest heights of commercial real estate?
It all began with her father who was a stock and station agent who moved into real estate and then development. His side hustle was farming, but that eventually became the real hustle.
“When you're sitting around a dinner table and you're hearing about negotiations and terminologies, you find it all interesting and it kind of becomes your calling.”
The family’s work would see Rachel move around often – thirteen homes and three different high schools to be exact. The upside of the constant uprooting would be that she learnt how to make friends fast.
"I always enjoyed meeting new people and love to know everyone's story. That's what really inspired me to be in property,” she says.
Getting her foot in the door as a research analyst for a valuations group, Rachel’s daily fact checking of comparable evidence with real estate agents quickly allowed her to see where the real action was. With a fresh degree in hand, she cold called the managing director of a major real estate company to ask if she could have a shot at industrial property. They conditionally obliged. If she was any good, she could stay. If she wasn’t, she’d be gone. So, she learned to canvas.
For the uninitiated to the industry, canvassing involves real estate brokers focusing on potential tenants or vendors. This can be achieved by door knocking, but in Rachel’s case it was picking up a telephone a hundred times a day.
“It just took one person to notice and say, ‘You sound like you’ve just made a hundred calls,’ for me to understand the importance of always maintaining my energy when communicating. You live and learn.”
In it for the collective wins
The aforementioned 10,000 square metres of office leased to NSW Health, and most recently 5,159 square metres for Lendlease, are just two recent examples of many.
“We're in a really tough leasing market, but I've managed to assist Lendlease with pre-leasing two major tenants that were not represented at the time. For me it was canvassing tenants and getting them engaged early on while showing them the attributes of those buildings. To be able to get almost 50% away to two tenants in a very tough market, I think our client is super appreciative of that.”
Even the early days of competitive team sports have seemingly played a crucial role in how she leads her own teams today. It’s a constant reminder for her that winning isn’t only a personal affair.
“I love seeing my teams win work. I like it when they are succeeding, and I love it when they get that deal across the line; I get so excited I make them ring an office bell even if they really don’t want to,” she says.
“I want everyone to get behind everyone else and feel the energy. For me, it's about that collective feeling of winning and succeeding. And to get to that point I need to make sure that we've got the right tools, the right platform and the right mindset to go in to win.”
Leading the way for a fairer industry
It was 1995 when Rachel became one of only a handful of women working in Australia’s industrial property sector. She has fond memories of it and muses over how work got done during a time before computers.
“We had one big binder book with typed up listings. We’d photocopy them and take them with us or fax them. And somehow or another, without an electronic diary or mobile phones, we met people on time.”
With good mentors supporting her, Rachel is grateful for her inclusive workplace back in those days, but there were still instances where she had to fight for her rights.
“There were always shenanigans like people coming in and changing fee splits. You’d know when they changed them because they used Liquid Paper to erase it and cut my split from 40% to 25%. That’s when the boxing gloves go on and you have to fight for what’s right. None of it was fair and you had to fight for fairness.”
Fairness is a concept that Rachel understands in the workplace now more than ever. Her experience has motivated her to demonstrate a proactive type of leadership that’s shifting the needle towards a better industry for all future employees – including women.
“This business is super competitive. It's who's the fastest and most proactive wins. It's a high stakes winner-takes-all kind of scenario.
“That’s why finding and championing fairness in our industry is so important to me, especially when some women have to go home and do their second job as a parent.
“What I like about being on the Property Champions of Change today is that I'm still fighting for fairness. It’s about encouraging a diversity of thinking, and it’s this diversity of backgrounds that eventually benefits the property industry by nurturing more opportunities for economic growth.”
Forging a reputation for results
“I’ve learnt to distill it, compartmentalise it, and move on. Maintaining a high level of service to ensure you continue on an appointment or maintain a client relationship is critical in our industry. Provided you have performed, having perspective is also important - it's not life or death.
“Especially as every building project right now is challenging. That’s why we maintain constant communication across all our projects almost every day to make sure owners know exactly what we’re doing for them.
“It's ensuring they know we're leaving no stone unturned while articulating why something may not be working and coming up with alternative strategies as quickly as possible.
“It’s the criteria I follow innately, but at CBRE we have a great process in making sure that no one should ever be dropping the ball.”
Proof that all that netball eventually paid off.
Get in Touch
Rachel Vincent
Head of Office Leasing, NSW & Managing Director, North Sydney, Australia
