National commercial property consultancy, Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), has strengthened its agency team in Wales with the appointment of Kate Simpson as Associate Director.

Kate will head up the Office Agency department, supporting Regional Head of Agency Steve Matheson in servicing LSH’s new and existing landlord and occupier clients across the South Wales Region.

Working from Cardiff, Kate will cover South Wales city centre and out-of-town markets and will compliment LSH’s agency team operating out of its Swansea office.

Kate joins LSH from Cooke & Arkwright’s Cardiff office where she specialised in disposals and acquisitions of office space. She also gained experience on GVA’s graduate programme and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 2009.

High levels of commercial property activity

Kate says: “I look forward to developing a portfolio of clients across the region at a time when business confidence is growing and we expect high levels of commercial property activity in 2014.”

Steve Matheson, Regional Head of Agency at LSH said: “Kate has excellent local and specialised sector knowledge which I’m sure our clients both old and new will benefit greatly from.”

Increased recovery

According to research by LSH, Cardiff has made it into the top 10 markets for the UK for speculative office development, indicating 2014 is set to be a promising year. The city’s office market is showing signs of increased recovery with a number of speculative developments in the pipeline. LSH is also advising the BBC on its acquisition of 150,000 sq ft of offices in Cardiff to accommodate the relocation of Broadcasting House from Llandaff.