Kenny Bruce, the co-founder of Purplebricks, is one of two major property industry figures to be given gongs over the weekend in the Queen’s Honours List.
Bruce, the younger brother of Purplebricks co-founder Michael Bruce, is to receive an MBE for services to charity and his work supporting Larne Football Club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Tony Gallagher, one of the UK’s leading property developers, is to receive a knighthood for services to land and property development.
Bruce has employed a significant proportion of the wealth he derived from Purplebricks to fund Larne Football Club in his boyhood home town, transforming it from a struggling Irish backwater team into one of Norther Ireland’s highest-profile squads.
New players
This has included funds to buy new players, two new stands for its stadium, a youth football academy and a regular gate of 1,000.
Since the Bruce brothers made controversial exits form Purplebricks, Kenny has also been busy helping launch a charity, Agents Together, that offers free business and life coaching to agents.
He is also a director of Boomin, the much-anticipated property portal he and his brother have promised will launch this month, but has yet to make an announcement.
Tony Gallagher (left) rose to fame as one of the UK’s most high-profile land buyers and developers and his former company Gallagher Estates, was sold for over £500 million in 2017 and is now known as L&Q Estates.
He has been a significant donor to the Conservative party and hosted David Cameron’s 50th birthday party at his mansion in Oxfordshire, and in 2015 he gave more than half a million pounds to the Tories.
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