Chestertons says a ‘rampant’ rental market in central London has helped the company beat its lettings revenue targets by 18% so far this year and that it now holds the same market share as its key competitor, Foxtons.

Managing Director Guy Gittins (pictured, below) has told The Negotiator that despite the property market in London his company also beat its sales targets by 3%.

Chestertons closely monitors bid offer spread to measure market sentiment and says the London market is improving compared to two years ago when it was ‘in freefall’.

“In 2017, offers were 20% below asking price because that’s where buyers thought the market was going, but today its five to six percent below.

“We’ve had a good year when you consider that Foxtons saw its results down by 18% during the first three months of this year, showing that if you get it wrong then a business can go off the boil very quickly,” he says.

Swift changes

Gittins, who started his career at Foxtons before moving to Savills and in 2012 Chestertons, was made MD last year and says he immediately made big changes to the way the company was run and structured.

“We’ve been focussing on training people and giving them the right kind of leadership,” he says. “We’re making the transition from the kind of  very traditional business it was seven or eight years ago to a  proper contender now really at the sharp end, particularly if you look at our market share then we’re right up there with the big players.

“We’re really focussing on data and monitoring what’s happening on an hourly and even per second basis.

“For example we look at new applicants registering, location of price points at which they’re registering at, what percentage of applicants are actually out viewing and how many properties they view in the first month – and how fast buyers go from viewing to offer.”