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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Brum, brum! Fine & Country revs up branch expansion with new Birmingham branch
Fine & Country has opened a new office in Birmingham’s prestigious shopping location, The Mailbox.
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Haughton Warburton Launches Resi Division
One of Manchester’s longest standing commercial and industrial property agencies - Haughton Warburton has responded to market demands and launched Haughton Warburton Residential.
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Cheffins’ New Strategic Framework
Multi-disciplinary property and auctioneering business, Cheffins, has announced a new corporate framework to accelerate its growth...
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Belvoir urges franchisees to buy up rivals
Belvoir Lettings is to embark on an aggressive push to persuade existing franchisees to buy up local competing agencies as an “uncertain economy, increased regulation and erosion of profits mean many independent agents are selling up,” the company says. Managing Director Dorian Gonsalves (pictured) says his acquisition team are already being offered businesses for sale at a rate of one every working day and that the company is to launch a roadshow that will travel around its network of franchisees to encourage owners to consider expanding, helped partially through funding arranged by the Belvoir head office in Grantham. The company says this helps franchisees increase turnover and profits, enhance market presence of and capital value to their business. “Belvoir prides itself on working closely with our franchise owners to help them assess whether an acquisition opportunity is likely to add significant value to their business,” says Dorian. If this proves to be the case, and our stringent due diligence checks are approved, Belvoir can, in the right circumstances, loan up to 30% of the purchase price. The process takes approximately three to six months and I look forward to reporting many more mutually beneficial acquisitions throughout the year.” A recent…
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Rogue letting agent jailed after National Trading Standards investigation
A rogue letting agent and landlord in Lancashire has been jailed for three years and nine months after he was convicted at Bolton Crown Court of nine counts of fraud, theft and forgery following a lengthy investigation by the National Trading Standards. Tahir ‘Tony’ Khaliq (pictured, left) operated a string of property companies including several letting agencies which he used as vehicles for his fraudulent activity. The most shocking was the theft of holding deposits of between £200 and £400 from over 100 prospective tenants, many of whom were extremely vulnerable people mainly in the Rochdale, Bury and Oldham areas. Khaliq, with the help of accomplice Paul Dickinson – who received a two-year suspended sentence and 240 hours of community service – took the holding deposits and claimed they were processing fees for unsuccessful tenancy applications. The court heard how one woman, after losing her holding deposit, was forced to move into a Mother and Baby unit, as well as another who experienced extreme financial difficulties while trying to save money to leave her violent and abusive partner. National Trading Standards says Khaliq was involved in other illegal activities relating to his property businesses including forging documents, the theft of…
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Former Rightmove tech boss joins online letting agent
Online-only lettings agency Upad has bagged James Micklethwait, former head of product development at Rightmove, as an advisory board member. Micklethwait (pictured, left) was responsible for a 100-strong tech team at Rightmove and headed up the portal’s product development. He left Rightmove in September last year after a two-and-a-half-year stint at the portal. Before that he spent three years at broadcaster ITV and before that nearly eight years at the BBC. “Since leaving Rightmove I have been drawn to areas where I believe technology has the greatest potential to change our industry,” says James. “In my view, lettings is one of those areas and I am very impressed with what James and the Upad.co.uk team have achieved to date. I look forward to helping the company achieve its ambitious growth plans.” James Davis, (pictured, right) CEO of Upad, says: “With our latest figures suggesting that over 90% of UK tenants now start their rental search online, optimising the digital customer journey is imperative. James has unsurpassed expertise in this field, specifically relating to property searchers.” Upad, which was set up ten years ago by Davis, has also appointed a further big brain to its board – Eddie Holmes of PropTech…
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Chris Wood challenges Purplebricks to a house sales bet
Chris Wood of Penzance-based PDQ Estates has thrown down the gauntlet to hybrid agent Purplebricks to see who can sell the most homes. In a tweet (see right) over the weekend Chris challenged Purplebricks to put its model to the test by submitting all its completed transactions over a set period to be independently audited by the ESTAS, which would then be measured against PDQ Estates’ completed transactions. “I spoke to Simon Brown at the ESTAs who said he was very happy to do it and that it would all be above board,” says Chris. “Everyone thinks I’m anti Purplebricks, but I’m not,” says Chris. “I’ve got nothing against the hybrid concept – I helped develop a very similar system for Tesco when I worked there as a consultant – and I think the Purplebricks model is an excellent one.” Chris says his main problem with both Purplebricks and several traditional high street agents too is the way that properties are listed on the portals and how agent review websites work. His challenge has been retweeted numerous times including by Top 150 UK law firm and conveyancing solicitor Trethowans. It tweeted that ‘it won’t be Purplebricks who win. Always avoid…
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Martin & Co franchisees to be offered new ZPG deal
Martin & Co parent company The Property Franchise Group (TPFG), which also owns five other agency brands with nearly 400 branches across the UK, has signed up to a long-term deal with ZPG that will be available to all its franchisees. TPFG is the UK’s biggest estate agent franchise operation in the UK and ZPG says the deal will see a ‘large number’ of TPFG’s brands returning to its online platforms. Martin & Co has also separately signed up to use Jupix, the ZPG-owned property software suite, for a further three years. TPFG will now offer the negotiated listings deal to all its existing members, but will be of interest most to those who have not signed up with ZPG yet, or who thinking about leaving OnTheMarket.com. This was the case for the Exeter branch of Martin & Co whose MD Christopher Perring (pictured, left) says he signed up to ZPG after leaving OnTheMarket following “poor lead levels and a lack of external marketing of OnTheMarket,” he says. Of the TPFG brands, Martin & Co currently has 109 out of 175 of its franchisee branches listed on Zoopla while CJ Hole has three out of 21, Ellis & Co 14 out…
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Beals acquires Baker & Elder
Beal’s Independent Estate Agents has announced the acquisition of Baker & Elder Sales & Lettings Agents in Southsea, Hampshire.
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Robert Holmes branches out to Mayfair
Robert Holmes, the Wimbledon-based independent sales and lettings agent, has opened a new office in Davies Street, in the heart of Mayfair.
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