A leading estate agent in the North says he has been involved in some 10,000 property sales during a 40-year career in the property industry.

Ian Bradbury, who currently runs the Aire Valley, Yorkshire business of Dacre, Son & Hartley, has worked in the area for all of his working life after joining the firm in 1983 following a short spell working at a supermarket after leaving school.

He then progressed at the firm into a sales role and in 1991 was made branch manager of the firm’s Keighley branch. Bradbury was then given shares in the company and became a director in 2002.

“I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn the trade from several very good and experienced people, who always took the time to offer me help and advice, and it was five years before I did my first solo valuation,” he says.

The most important thing they taught me is that estate agency is a people business.”

“Buying and selling a property is usually the biggest financial transaction people make, so buyers and sellers want to work with people they trust, and this is something I always instil on the next generation of estate agents and our new starters.”

Commenting on this local market, he adds:  “Even now, with rising interest rates causing a degree of uncertainty, the market remains buoyant in and around Keighley, which is partly due to it being a relatively unique location, where you can still buy houses for £50,000 close to the town centre, but equally you can pay upwards of £1million in its surrounding rural villages.

“Crucially though, several things have remained constant over the past four decades. Firstly, it’s extremely difficult to predict how long each cycle will last in the housing market. Secondly my advice to sellers, which is that a correctly priced and well-presented home will always sell.”

Patrick McCutcheon (pictured), head of residential at Dacre, Son & Hartley, which has 20 offices in West and North Yorkshire, adds: “Ian is a key reason that we’re so successful in the Aire Valley”.