Agencies & People
News covering the businesses, activities, people and personalities in estate agency and letting agency and wider residential property industry.
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Go-to estate agent employer for graduate applicants revealed
Savills has been named Graduate Employer of Choice in a survey of over 20,000 applicants by The Times newspaper. Competitors JLL were placed second and Knight Frank third. The awards were held last week in London and presented by Martin Birchall from specialist market research company High Fliers. This is the 11th time that Savills has won the accolade from the newspaper, which also recently placed the company 94th in the UK within its other graduate rankings scheme, Top 100 Graduate Employers. This was the first time the company has been included in the list, which is topped by accounting giant PwC, and makes it the only agent to get into the rankings this year. Savills is coy about how much it pays its annual 170-strong graduate intake, but website Glassdoor.co.uk reckons Savills pays starter associates £36,275. Knight Frank pays £37, 169, the website says, and JLL approximately £31,000. Mark Ridley, CEO of Savills UK and Europe (pictured), says: “To have secured this award for the eleventh consecutive year is a tremendous achievement and one of which we are incredibly proud. “Furthermore, this prestigious recognition underlines the importance we place on offering a first class programme that provides our graduates…
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LSL Property Services leadership team awarded shares worth £1.25m
Agency giant LSL Property Services has awarded its core leadership team share options totalling £1.251 million, part of the PLC’s incentive scheme for senior staff. This includes Group CEO Ian Crabb (pictured, left) who receives vested shares worth (at today’s shares price of £2.10) £406,967 and Group CFO Adam Castleton (pictured, right(), who receives vested shares worth £294,700. Helen Buck (pictured, below left), who heads up the group’s Estate Agency business, gets shares worth £300,715. A further two directors – Jon Round, director of its financial services business and Ronan Jennings, who heads up its surveying business e.surv – receive shares totalling £192,000. The group can cash in the shares in two years’ time but to do so have been given targets that could prove difficult to achieve given current market conditions. Basic earnings per share must rise by 7.5% a year over the next 18 months, while total shareholder return must reach the median compared to its main competitors. Annual report LSL’s most recent annual report for 2016 reveals that adjusted basic earnings per share were down by 18%. The group, which includes agent brands Your Move, Reeds Rains and Marsh & Parsons, earlier this month reported group revenue…
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ZPG purchase of Expert Agent to be reviewed by competition watchdog
ZPG’s purchase of software company Expert Agent earlier this month has been called in by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and is now under review, prompting shares in ZPG to drop this morning. The CMA has served an initial enforcement order to ZPG under section 72(2) of the Enterprise Act 2002. The announcement was made by ZPG this morning, saying that “having been informed of the review and the order ZPG is now engaging in a consultation with the CMA and will make a further announcement in due course”. The move has been widely anticipated within the industry after ZPG acquired Expert Agent – which trades under the name Websky Ltd – from private equity firm Metropolis. It in turn bought the company off founder Mike Griffiths in 2004. The ZPG acquisition of Expert Agent gave it a substantial slice of the UK agent software market, as it had already bought Property Software Group in April 2016. PSG at the time of acquisition by ZPG claimed to be used by over 40,000 estate agent letting agent branches across the UK, while Expert Agent is used by over 2,500 branches. The CMA has been in the warpath within the property…
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Lettings and strong country sales save the day at Winkworth Franchising during “difficult” 2016
Winkworth Franchising has reported a “difficult” year after publishing its 2016 annual results. This includes franchisee turnover down 6% to £46.1 million and franchisor profits before taxation down 25.6% at £1.42 million. But lettings saved the company from worse results. The annual report says its franchisee network, which is concentrated in prime markets within London, the South East, East of England and Midlands, experienced a significant increase in rental income from 38% of total revenues in 2015 to 44% last year. “Our rentals business continued to grow on the back of new initiatives such as the corporate relocation department,” says Dominic Agace, CEO of Winkworth Franchising (pictured). “With an improved proposition for landlords, property management commissions grew by 16% to represent 15% of rental revenue compared to 12% in 2015. “Rental income growth in the country was stronger still, rising by 21%, so that the total contribution to group turnover from offices outside of London increased from 19% in 2015 to 21%. This vindicates our strategy of expansion outside of London since 2008.” But Winkworth Franchising experienced a quiet year for sales, created it says mainly by worries over Brexitg, although like many other agents it experienced a rush of landlords buying properties…
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Hannells’ new lettings office opens
The Hannells Lettings team was joined by Derby County’s star midfielder, Bradley Johnson and club mascot Rammie to mark the official opening of their new Lettings office on Mallard Way.
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Purplebricks takes down website claims after ASA probe
Purplebricks has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) once more for claims made on its website and, following a probe by the watchdog, subsequently taken down. The claims under scrutiny on this occasion are that it “takes us just 14 days to find a buyer” but, after the complainant clicked an icon next to the claim, it clarified that “the average time taken from a property going live to a viewing being booked for the eventual purchaser is 14 days”. A similar claim made for the Purplebricks’ lettings operation was also contested by the complainant. Using an identical device, the company said: “6 days – on average it takes us just 6 days to find a tenant”. Upon clicking an icon next to this text the following text appeared in a pop up: “The average time taken from a property going live to a viewing being booked for the eventual tenant is 6 days.” Misleading? The ASA says the complainant suggested that both claims were misleading and could be substantiated and, after the ASA contacted Purplebricks, the company agreed to remove the claims and the case was resolved informally. This is now the fourth complaint received against Purplebricks since September 2016.…
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Picture of the week: It’s like a Tardis outside
PICTURE OF THE WEEK. No agent would say taking pictures of properties is easy. Bad weather, poor light, impossible angles, uncooperative vendors, untidy rooms. They can all conspire to make presenting many homes a challenge. And then there are the problems of marketing new homes. Developers are super keen to have them sold as soon as possible, and ideally before they’re finished to keep their balance sheets healthy. This was the problem faced by an agent in Kings Lynn who, on arrival on site, found a huge portable toilet in front of the property and, given the day’s busy schedule and its weight, had no choice but to snap – we assume. The resulting photograph did not go unnoticed online. A local fitness trainer and, presumably house hunter too, spotted the photo on Rightmove and alerted The Negotiator via Twitter. For those who can see past the oddly Tardis-like urinal parked in the drive, agent William H Brown is selling a brand new three bedroom semi for £177,500, part of a development of 14 similar homes near in the northern outskirts of Kings Lynn marketed squarely at first time buyers.
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Agent makes lone stand against landlords who advertise direct on property portals
Newcastle-under-Lyme letting agent Rocket Homes Rentals has locked horns with the two largest property portals over listings by two local student lettings companies. It says they are advertising on the big portals even thought they are landlords who only market their own properties. Hybrid agent/landlords like these are springing up across the UK at the moment to enable a single landlord, or group of landlords, to bypass letting agents entirely and advertise their properties to rent directly on the large portals. Rockett Home Rentals, which has a single branch in Newcastle-under-Lyme but covers Crewe, Stafford and Stoke on Trent and has been in business since 2003, says its two rivals are advertising on Rightmove and Zoopla. “I’ve talked to both portals and no matter how they want to dress this up, they seem happy to let these ‘agents’ list because they have paid money and that’s it, regardless of how their business works,” says director Bill Rockett (pictured, below) “The only properties they have are the ones they own – they’re not an agent for anyone and they don’t service any customers except themselves. “It worries me that in the small area around my business I’ve seen ‘agents’ like this…
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“Sexist” Marsh & Parsons ad to be withdrawn after complaints to ASA, and Twitter backlash
What was supposed to be 'tongue in cheek' ad goes awry for LSL-owned London agent.
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Expanding Belvoir group gathers for conference and awards at stately home.
Business is clearly doing well at franchise operation Belvoir. The company has just held a very posh conference and awards bash at a stately home in Oxfordshire, with 32 gongs up for grabs and a new Mini for the raffle winner. All companies need a little team building activity and arguably, franchised businesses need it more than others as they know they are part of something big – 300 offices across the UK – but running their own business within the group. This event obviously made everyone feel very much part of a team, with a full day conference with a range of key note speakers, Dorian Gonsalves, COO, said, “this year our keynote speakers were simply outstanding. “The theme was ‘What If’ and we chose this because we wanted to give our franchisees innovative and inspirational advice that will help them to provide their clients with world-class levels of customer service, which will really take their businesses forward to the next level.” The 2017 Belvoir Conference was held at Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire (pictured, below), followed by a black tie champagne dinner. Comedian and author Gyles Brandreth (pictured, left), provided after dinner entertainment and also hosted the awards. “The evening…
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