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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A new home for Cameron
Cameron , an agency with two branches in West London, has a new home in West Drayton...
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Clive Emson achieves £18m at latest sale
Clive Emson Auctioneers sold land and property worth over £18 million at its September auction, from a catalogue of 140 lots and a sale rate of 80 per cent.
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It’s a fair cop!
The former Perry Barr police station was the stand out lot at SDL Auctions Bigwood’s auction at Aston Villa FC which raised over £16 million and saw 125 lots sold under the hammer.
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SDL Auctions celebrates expansion into North West
SDL Auctions North West held a reception for property professionals at the Grand Pacific bar in Manchester to mark its regional launch in the North West.
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No more ‘Staff’ at Jackson Stops
Jackson-Stops & Staff has rebranded as Jackson-Stops, dropping ‘& Staff’ from its name.
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Barclays awards two online lettings ‘disruptors’ with start-up gongs
Two property firms are winners within this year’s Barclays Entrepreneur Awards including Upad founder and landlord James Davis (pictured, right), who was named Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year for the London region, and proptech firm brightLET, which during an earlier heat won Best Innovative Start-Up for the Midlands. The Upad award somewhat stretches the definition of a start-up business – Upad Ltd was incorporated in April 2008 – but a spokesperson told The Negotiator that the gong was awarded by the award’s panel of judges for its high-growth credentials instead. The judges included Cambridge Judge Business School, The Sunday Times, investment firm MMC Ventures and Barclays. The bank said James received the award because he had been the “driving force behind Upad’s phenomenal growth over the last two years”, commending him on the way he had “identified, and capitalised upon, a market opportunity”. “From day one, Upad was intended as a disruptor within the residential lettings market,” James said after the ceremony. “As a landlord myself I had witnessed how fragmented the market had become and felt sure that there was scope for significant improvement. “Upad was, therefore, born out of a belief that innovative and bespoke technology could more effectively…
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Rolfe East joins Network Auctions
Network Auctions has welcomed its 100th partner agent office, as Rolfe East in Sherborne joins the growing ranks across the UK.
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Purplebricks share price jumps 6% after bank’s positive rating
Purplebricks share price rose by just over 6% at one point yesterday after one of Europe’s most influential and oldest investment houses backed the hybrid agency, saying it expected “significant growth” from the company. Berenberg, which is based in Hamburg but has a London outpost, said Purplebricks is now its preferred stock within the property sector, citing Purplebricks’ technology, which it believes helps the company offer a “better service at a far lower price”. “That gives it a monopoly on growth,” says Berenberg within its briefing note. “All the large traditional agents that we track have shown flat to declining business and the other hybrids and online [agents] have generally seen no growth, demonstrating the specific appeal of the Purplebricks offering, in our view.” Berenberg now recommends Purplebricks’ shares as a ‘buy’ while at the same time recommending investors sell both Countrywide and Foxtons, saying that it “disliked” their stocks. It also recommends investor hold their LSL shares, saying that although it is losing market share to Purplebricks, its strong balance sheet, growing services division and investment in YOPA may help shield the firm from further volatility in the market. But Berenberg says Countrywide faces ongoing continued restructuring costs and…
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Fen Wright continues expansion
Fenn Wright, a property consultancy, has completed its second business acquisition in a month and the third this year.
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Latest proptech launch? The app-only lettings agency
Agents will soon have a new competitor for students lets, but not on the high street or online. Instead, an entirely app-based lettings agency specifically for university students is about to launch its proptech platform, backed by £280,000 raised on funding platform Seedrs. At launch the company says it will offer 50,000 rooms to rent, helped by listings from US institutional property investor Hines, which has handed over its entire UK student portfolio to SPCE. The service, which includes a website, smartphone application and an office in London, is due to launch during the first week of November and was created by former Leicester student housing ambassador and merchant banker Leon Ifayemi with adverting executive Omar Fahmi. “My job as a student ambassador was to take students to properties to view day in and day out and that’s where I saw the issues that students and landlords faced,” he says. Leon says he then saw a need for a solution that would arbitrate the problems that arise between landlords and students, and also handle the rental process from search to moving out, “rather than just portions of it”, he says. Tenants will use SPCE almost entirely through its proptech app,…
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