One of the UK property industry’s fastest-growing estate agencies has been put for sale for £100m, it has been reported.

Lomond Group, which has been hoovering up smaller firms at a dizzying rate over the past 12 months or more, is being prepared for sale by its private equity backers, LDC.

Sky News claimed over the weekend that LDC, which is the investment arm of Lloyds Bank, has hired City firm Clearwater International to handle the sale.

Lomond Group was created in 2021 from the merger of finance firm Lomond Capital and estate agency Linley & Simpson, a deal which established a business with 22,000 properties under management.

In a recent interview with The Neg, Lomond boss Ed Phillips (main picture), who is a former Foxtons high flyer, said he hoped Lloyds would give him enough time to build the business, saying: “LDC is unusual because don’t have such hard time targets to exit businesses because of the way they’re set up. We’re on the runway but it’s got a long way to go.”

Growth

Lomond Group has been growing via a ‘hub and spoke’ approach with key brands such as Thornley Groves, Braemore and John Shepherd established or acquired in each region and then smaller brands or firms connected to each one.

An example of this is one of its most recent (and 50^th) acquisition of national property operation; the rental portfolio of national firm Rendall & Rittner Sales & Lettings.

A proportion of its portfolio was transferred to Lomond Investment Management (LIM), its specialist investment management arm which offers build-to-rent, single family housing and portfolio landlord services.

The remainder of the portfolio in Manchester, Liverpool and Chester switched to Lomond’s Thornley Groves brand in the North West.