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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Winkworth returns to franchise expansion in 2017 with six new branches
Winkworth is back on the franchise network expansion path after a two-year hiatus, the company has revealed with at least six opening this year. This includes one already open for business, two to start up over the next fortnight and a further three to open later in the year including several in South West London. These openings include an existing franchisee from Sway in Hampshire who is preparing to set up shop in Milford-on-Sea, while an existing 22-year-old business in Kingsbury, North London is converting to Winkworth, and due to open next week as well. Also, the company says it youngest franchisee – at 27-year-old – is about to open up shop in Cheltenham after spending several years working at its Dulwich, South London branch. He is Tom Mayfield (pictured, left), who before joining Winkworth worked for Carter Jonas. “We have been concentrating on portfolio management as franchisees retire, and we’ve been dealing with that by selling both within the network, but also outside it,” says business affairs manager Gina Piper. Franchise manager “But now we’ve also hired a new franchise manager, James Campbell (pictured, right), who has a strong lettings background.” Gina says Winkworth has seen increasing share of its revenues…
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Foxtons revenues down by 25% during Q1
Foxtons revenues across its three core areas of business fell during the first three months of the year compared to the same period of 2016, the company has revealed. Commission from sales sank by 44.5% from £20m to £11.1 million, lettings revenues were down slightly from £15.8m to £15.5m and mortgage broking fees fell by £500,000 to £2.1m. The company says the dramatic drop in sales revenue has been created by last year’s rush by landlords and second homes buyers to buy properties before the Stamp Duty increase deadlines. This has left a sizeable hole in its first quarter 2017 group revenues which dropped by 25% from £38.4m last year to £28.7m. But Foxtons’ board says this was “expected”. Sales commission Similar reductions in revenue particularly from sales commissions reported in its 2016 accounts were said by Foxtons chairman Garry Watts to be caused by a substantial reduction in transactions in London, driven principally by rising house prices, stamp duty changes and the EU referendum. The results have pushed the company’s strategy off-course somewhat – it’s stated aim to investors for some time now has been to target “higher-volume, higher-value residential property markets within London”. Its shares on the London…
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YOPA claims hybrid agents will handle 50% of sales by 2020
Online hybrid estate agent YOPA has announced that it has raised a further £15 million from investors including the Daily Mail’s parent company DMGT and Grosvenor Hill Ventures, the investment arm of Savills. The company has also made some punchy claims within the statement accompanying the news of its Series B funding, which follows the £16 million investment Savills made in the agency in June last year. This includes that its market share is increasing rapidly and that hybrid agents like it and Purplebricks will handle 50% of all sales by 2020. YOPA, whose founders are Daniel Attia, Andrew Barclay, David Jacobs and Alistair Barclay (pictured LtoR), also claims that the hybrid agency is one of the “country’s top three agents for successful property sale” based on percentages of sales agreed against listing data from Rightmove data. YOPA has a national network of 75 local agents who work exclusively with the company but are freelance not employees, plans to use the new investment to double the number of agents working for it by the end of this year. “After a strong first quarter of trading, we are delighted to have closed our Series B round of funding,” says Daniel Attia, co-founder…
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Savills wins Appeal Court case over unpaid £150,000 commission
It has been revealed that Savills has won an Appeal Court case and is now due a commission of some £150,000 for the sale of Mill Ride Estate near Ascot in Berkshire, which sold for early £7 million in 2012. The estate used to be land and stables but during the 1990s was laid out as a golf course with a clubhouse (pictured). It was bought by Sidemanor Ltd in 2003, a company owned by London and Argyll-based businessman Peter Blacker (pictured, left) Savills were instructed to sell the property in 2012 and produced several valuations ranging from £2.5m to £10m, the higher of which assumed that planning permission could be gained for a large detached residence within the estate’s grounds, and vacant possession of a cottage. Savills also produced a document outlining what was to be sold including how, should the property sell, they would be due to a fee. This included the recommendation that the estate be sold via “private treaty” and that “we suggest that the estate is offered for sale as soon as planning consent has been granted and we advise that the marketing is initially carried out on a very private basis,” said Savills director…
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Belvoir franchisee buys Belvoir corporate branch
Belvoir Lettings plc has sold its Burton corporate owned office to an adjacent Belvoir franchisee which operates in Hinkley, Nuneaton and Tamworth.
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John D Wood says goodbye to Faron Sutaria with… free coffee?
Countrywide recently announced that the Faron Sutaria brand would be disappearing and its remaining branches rebranded as John D Wood & Co. But the change of name has been “celebrated” in an unusual way. Every day this week and into next week staff from the re-branded central London branches are to give away nearly 2,000 cups of coffee to bleary-eyed commuters. The on-the-go coffee give-away is taking place during the morning rush hour near five branches; Notting Hill Gate, South Kensington, Fulham Broadway, Earls Court and Sloane Square. Coffee vans The coffee will be supplied by the kind of mobile vans familiar to city dwellers these days, which were hired from and staffed by London-based coffee firm Café Santiago. Today’s activity was on Earls Court Road at which members of the local John D Wood branch were present including (from L to R) Lisa Cavanagh-Smith (Senior Lettings Manager), Samiye Mahmoud (Office Manager) and Jiselle Jessop (Senior Lettings Operations Coordinator), Jessica Wright (Associate), William Miles ( Sales Negotiator) as pictured, above. The campaign kicked off on Monday in Sloane Square and then moved to Fulham Broadway on Tuesday (see picture below) and each morning 250 cups of coffee are being given away which a John D Wood…
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Poole Townsend snaps up Andrew Moir
A Cumbrian estate agency has bolstered its property offering with the acquisition of Ulverston based Andrew Moir Residential Letting Agency Limited.
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EasyProperty withdraws advertising claims after ASA probe
Online agent easyProperty.com has agreed to withdraw several claims about its service from any future advertising following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The complaint was made by a member of the public who had clicked on a link within a Google-sponsored search result to an ad that included: “Get an offer within 20 weeks”, “Save £2809 on estate agent fees”, “No commission fees” and “Save with low fixed fees”. After contacting easyProperty, the complainant was quoted a saving of less than £2,809 and “was not given an explanation of how the advertiser could get them offers within 20 weeks”, the ASA says, and then challenged whether the claims in the ad were misleading and could be substantiated. Claims removed EasyProperty has now removed “Get an offer within 20 weeks” and “Save £2809 on estate agent fees” from its advertising. It also agreed in future ads to use less definitive savings claims – such as ‘You could save’ and that they would make it clear that the ‘offer within 20 weeks claim’ actually referred to their money back guarantee offer, whereby consumers would receive a refund if their property wasn’t sold within 20 weeks. On this basis and…
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Cluttons saved from closure by Rcapital
Rcapital, the UK based private investor, has entered into a partnership with Cluttons LLP to support its corporate restructuring and future growth. Cluttons is a long established (1765) highly regarded international firm of chartered surveyors and property consultants headquartered in London. It has a strong presence through the UK with multi-service international offices in UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah), Oman, Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in addition to a number of international residential license partners. It has around 450 employees and 32 partners. Rcapital’s announcement said that “Rcapital will support Cluttons as it adapts to the changing international real estate market. This corporate restructuring will allow Cluttons to continue to operate as normal in delivering excellent client service, and build a strong and flourishing business for the future. It will secure jobs, preserve the company’s historic brand name, and protect the interests of its employees going forward.” Steven Morgan, Senior Partner at Cluttons, said, “Having decided we required a new investment partner to help us grow the business, we were delighted to be introduced to Rcapital who have a deep sector understanding. Rcapital have not only provided financial support, but demonstrated that they have the expertise and skills to enable us…
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John D Wood grows as Faron Sutaria goes
Countrywide has completed its merger of two subsidiary brands, expanding John D Wood & Co. by a third, while closing the Faron Sutaria brand which was established 40 years ago.
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