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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Award winning estate agent opens eighth branch
Sudbury is now home from home for Fenn Wright, which has opened the doors to its new Sudbury branch, offering residential sales and lettings, in a prime location on Market Hill.
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Company landlords surge to take a fifth of the market
The number of company landlords has increased by 6% over the past three months to a record 20% of the market, it has been revealed by Countrywide. The figure is the highest proportion recorded by the company since it began collecting data seven years ago. The punishing reductions in tax allowances that began being phased in earlier this month, as well as the recent extra Stamp Duty for buy-to-let properties are leading many landlords to bring their properties into a limited company structure. “Companies are generally taxed more favourably, particularly with recent changes by government to tax relief, so in many cases landlords can make cash savings by operating through a company rather than as an individual,” says Johnny Morris, Research Director at Countrywide (pictured, left). The trend is clearest in London where Countrywide says 27% of rental properties are owned by a company landlord, he says. Top and bottom The figures also reveal that the increase in company landlords is most evident at the top of the market, and at the bottom. This would suggest that large-portfolio landlords who own multiple properties in the poorer parts of the UK, and the those who own prime rental properties, are behind…
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Hunters share price drops despite upbeat results
The City’s belief that even the largest estate agent chains have an underlying problem is highlighted by the Hunters share price which, after its up-beat annual results were announced last week, has dropped significantly. Since December last year the Hunters PLC share price on AIM had been holding steady at around 65p but on the day the results were issued dropped to 58p – and has since only recovered slightly. This is despite the York-based company revealing a 31% rise in pre-tax profits to £1.8 million on revenues of £13.8 million, up 15% compared to the year before. Branch openings Hunters says all its growth has come from franchisee branch openings, of which there are have been ten taking place every year, on average. In its results Hunters also predicting that it would outperform the market by 7% this year, and that so far instructions for the first two months of the year increased by 9%. Hunters has also been on the acquisition path recently and in March bought the 15-branch Gloucestershire and Bristol agency Besley Hill, bringing its network to over 200 branches. “The company has shown impressive growth, opening 30 new branches including converting 20 existing businesses,” says Chairman Kevin…
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Lees & Waters grows in the South West
Lees & Waters, an independent estate agency in Bridgwater, has moved to bigger, better premises...
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Hickamore, Hackamore! Squirrel photo-bombs listing for £395,000 Beatrix Potter house
Picture of the week goes to the Purplebricks LPE who took this photo of a red squirrel for the images used to market a house for sale near Coniston in the Lake District. The red squirrel’s decreasing habitat in the UK includes Cumbria so it’s not unusual to see the arboreal, omnivorous rodents in the area. Beatrix Potter But what’s most fitting is that the property used to belong to Beatrix Potter following her acquisition of the surrounding Monk Coniston Estate for £15,000 in 1930, part of her attempts at the time to stop holiday home developers hoovering up large tracts of Lakes countywide, and to preserve traditional farming and countryside traditions. One of Potters’ more enduring characters is Squirrel Nutkin, the tale of an impertinent red squirrel who loses his tail after baiting an owl. Or in this case, photo bombing property marketing materials, with his tale intact.
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Merge! Close! Sell!
It’s been Spring Cleaning time in the property agency market as the larger groups take action to maintain profits.
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Orchards Heads West
Orchards Estates in South Somerset has extended its services to cover the west of the county, from Taunton and Bridgwater to Williton and Minehead.
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Scanlans forges partnership with Pad Residential
Property management and surveying firm Scanlans has taken a 50 per cent stake in Pad Residential, a sales, lettings and management agency in Manchester city centre.
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Franchisees win a £15k car before even opening their Belvoir branch
A couple from South West London who are about to start-up a franchised branch of Belvoir on their local high street have received an unexpected boost to their fledgling business. Chantelle Harris, who has a background in sales but not property, along with her ex-London cabbie partner Darren O’Reilly, won a £15,000 branded Belvoir Mini at the franchise giant’s recent awards bash at a stately home in Oxfordshire (see above). The celebrity compere for the night, comedian Giles Brandreth, tweeted the moment when an incredulous Chantelle came on to the stage to pick up the prize (see below). First venture The couple’s first venture in property, a franchised branch in Bromley, is due to open next weekend in time for Easter and follows almost a year of training for the couple. “Previous experience in property management is not necessary, as Belvoir provides first class training for new franchise owners, and our franchise support team works extremely hard to ensure that they succeed,” says Dorian Gonsalves, Belvoir’s Managing Director. “Belvoir franchise owners now have the option to launch a sales service, as well as lettings, and this is proving to be very popular with vendors, including existing landlords who wish to…
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Over half of tenants CHOOSE to rent, says survey
If you are annoyed by the constant government narrative that all those who rent are unhappy, failed home owners denied the delights of bricks and mortar by high house prices and unhelpful lenders, then research by London agent Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings should cheer you up. It interviewed 1,400 of its tenants in the capital, where it has four branches in North London, to ask them about why they rented – part of the largest survey of its customer base that the company has ever completed. Diverse mix London’s very diverse mix of tenant nationalities was revealed. Some 18% of the respondents were non-British residents working for a relatively short period in the capital – and therefore less likely to buy in London. Only 3.66% of those in the survey were renting because they had been turned down for a mortgage because they did not earn enough, while 5.76% had been turned down because their deposit was not large enough. Some 17.8% of those in the survey said they were saving up a deposit to buy a property. But over half of tenants in the survey classed themselves as ‘lifestyle’ renters with 24% saying they chose to rent because it…
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