Sumner AU Case Study

Forbury has become a trusted technology partner for the firm and will continue to add significant value in the future. We are confident Forbury will continue to evolve its very powerful software and we will find new and innovative ways to put it to work in the future.

KIRBY PARSONAGE, MANAGING DIRECTOR - SUMNER

Sumner Kirby Parsonage 300 h

The Challenge

Since opening its doors in 2008 Sumner, a Sydney-based independent real estate and advisory firm, has relied on a range of tools to analyse potential property investment opportunities and generate robust, detailed, reports for clients.

Kirby Parsonage, Managing Director, says staff initially relied on Microsoft Excel and a proprietary tool that had been developed in-house. As the client list grew and the size of the projects increased, it became clear that this was no longer sufficient.

The company then deployed a well-known desktop-based application. While this improved their analysis capability, they found the software too US-centric and time-consuming.

“We had to constantly make considerable changes to the outputs that the software created,” says Parsonage. “It was not taking into account some of the factors and variables that are unique to the Australian property market.”

The Solution

In late 2018, Parsonage heard that the Forbury products had been developed and were now suitable for boutique property firms.

“Until then, their models had been aimed at large institutional investors and property companies rather than firms of our size. Once that changed, we were keen to sign a contract as quickly as possible.”

An agreement was confirmed in February 2019 and Sumner was up and running with Forbury in a couple of weeks.

“Once we had completed training, we found the software and working with the models to be very intuitive,” says Parsonage.

The Benefits

With Forbury now underpinning the firm’s analysis and reporting activities, some significant business benefits have been realised. He said;

From a risk perspective, Forbury assists us greatly as it ensures that the information we are using in our models is the most up-to-date that is available. This means that the data we provide to clients better reflects current market conditions and trends.

The software has also helped the firm to improve the quality of the reports that we generate. These reports can now contain more detail about projects, and we are able to generate them much more quickly.

Our firm is also benefitting from having the ability to share Forbury models with other parties as required. This is very convenient and saves us considerable time, particularly when working on projects with joint-venture partners. It ensures everyone is on the same page.

About Sumner

Established in 2008, Sumner is a Sydney-based independent real estate investment and advisory firm. With over $250m in real estate assets under management, they specialise in maximising income returns and capital growth. Taking an active, hands-on approach, they often use complex asset management initiatives. Showing an impressive average annual rate of return of over 20%, they are trusted by high-net-worth and institutional investors for their highly personalised services.

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