BDO moves into its big beautiful new office in Sydney

Accounting and advisory firm BDO has settled into its brand-new Sydney office, bucking the recent trend of maintaining the status quo in the big city among Australia’s biggest consulting firms.

BDO has finally shifted into its new space at Parkline Place after first signing a lease on the construction in mid-2023, with its Sydney relocation just one of many scheduled across the country and moves in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide still to come.

The firm’s upgrade in the Harbour City however is the exception among Australia’s top consultancies, with Ernst & Young recently recommitting to its branded George Street address and all of PwC, KPMG and Accenture choosing to stay put in Barangaroo.

BDO said its new Sydney office on Pitt Street ups its space in the city by 69 percent, and follows a two-fold increase of the firm’s local revenues to almost $190 million over the past five years, or roughly a third of its national total. All up, together with its recently launched office in Canberra and the others soon to come, BDO will have more than doubled its floor-space in just over a year.

“People are at the heart of all that we do, and the location and design of our new office reflects this,” said BDO’s NSW managing partner Grant Saxon. “We also understand that the benefits that come with flexibility and face-to-face contact will only be realised if we create an enticing destination, so we have invested in quality amenities that will make our workspace unique.”

Meanwhile, having also established an outlet in Parramatta in 2022, BDO’s New South Wales headcount has climbed by more that three hundred professionals to 800-plus over the past four years, including a seemingly endless stream of Big Four recruits. Nationally, BDO’s partnership tally now sits above 300, close to half of that of the once-ascendent PwC.

Real estate refresh

For BDO though, buoyed by the government’s current distaste for the Big Four, that’s just the beginning. The firm is also scheduled to move into new offices in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide before the year is out, respectively in Collins, Queen, and Pirie streets in each of the CBDs. The series of relocations will add about 40 percent of extra leg-room across the country.

“Our office moves signal our commitment to both our clients and people as we continue to make significant investments as part of our growth agenda,” said Tony Schiffmann, who will soon hand over to David Garvey as chief executive partner. “BDO’s stand-out-people-centric culture is becoming well-understood in the market, leading to a surge in interest and influx of lateral hires.”

BDO’s recent growth story sits in contrast to the declining revenues of its Big Four rivals, encapsulated by the firm’s upgrade in Sydney, including podium signage rights, compared to other activity. While Deloitte also made a move during the country’s consulting boom-times, both KPMG and PwC last year opted to extend in Barangaroo, their bases in the city since 2016.

The latest to resign was Ernst & Young, committing for another decade to the same George Street building it has occupied as an anchor tenant since its construction in the same year. Notably, while EY is preparing to move in Melbourne after lengthy deliberations, the office appears to be a slight downgrade in terms of space, with the firm in the state now partially ‘off-shoring’ to Ballarat.

Back up north, BDO says its new 7,600-plus square meters of space across levels 22 to 26 next to Hyde Park are the epitome of contemporary design, ticking all the boxes as to flexibility, energy efficiency, and connectivity via public transport, with the newly-built Gadigal metro station basically down in the basement. The goal is to lure staff back out of their own WFH dungeons.

“The exposure to on-hand guidance that you get while working next to managers and partners on the same office floor cannot be replicated while working from home,” said BDO accountant Lily Hall, who was wheeled out for the press release. “While flexible working has its benefits, the new office provides collaborative and breakout spaces that are conducive to the way we work.”