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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Embracing PropTech to support start-ups
London estate agency LiFE Residential has launched LiFE Ventures, a new investment arm aimed at the property sector.
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Lomond Capital grows in Scotland
Backed by Lomond Capital, Stonehouse Lettings has announced the purchase of the residential leasing business of Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace.
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eMoov moves with the money: £9million
Hybrid agent secures further funding from equity investment companies to enhance its technology platform.
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SDL Auctions gets together with Together
SDL Auctions, has launched an exclusive partnership with the auction finance provider Together, which will span all of its auctions across the UK.
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Salaries up by 20% across Arun Estates group
Arun Estates raises the bar for employment conditions and packages in a bid to attract and retain staff.
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Cameron Group opens in West Drayton
Cameron Group has opened a new office in West Drayton, following a six figure funding package from HSBC.
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Stunning views attract 20 viewings!
A three-bedroom detached bungalow in Alnwick, Northumberland, has sold for £181,000 – over three times its £55,000 reserve, at a Durham auction hosted by IAM Sold.
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Countrywide’s CEO Alison Platt takes new role focussing on sales and lettings
Countrywide CEO Alison Platt (pictured, right) is to focus her efforts on the company’s main property businesses and leave other areas to her new finance chief, it has been revealed today. The announcement follows recent speculation about Sam Tyrer (pictured, below), the company’s Managing Director of Retail and London, whose name was removed from the Countrywide senior team list, and whose LinkedIn profile gives an end date for her employment at the company. Retail focus At the time of joining Countrywide Sam was seen as one of the company’s new non-property, retail-focussed young innovators. Her arrival was part of Alison Platt’s drive to change the business from one dominated by long-serving property seniors into a more modern ‘integrated’ company. Sam was recruited by Alison two years ago to reshape the businesses’ sales and letting operations and was instrumental in launching its hybrid/online sales operation. But Countrywide now says there is to be a new organisational structure with Alison focussing on sales, lettings, financial services and commercial property. All the company’s UK-wide sales and lettings territories will report to Alison, including Hamptons International and its London and SE upmarket brands and City agencies including John D Wood. Countrywide’s new Chief Financial…
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London lettings showing “green shoots” says Foxtons
Foxtons says demand for rental properties in the London lettings market increased during the second quarter of the year, helping offset ongoing drops in rents. The company says in its latest lettings report that this is evidence of “stabilisation” within the market, which has witnessed decreasing average rents for six months now. “While this might not appear to be a significant increase, it comes against a backdrop of decline, suggesting that green shoots are starting to appear,” says Ed Phillips, Foxtons’ Managing Director of Lettings (pictured, below). The number of renters looking for property who are registered for each rental property offered by Foxtons’ branches increased by 3.3% during the second quarter of the year. But rents continue to decrease across many parts of the London lettings market, for several reasons. This includes the glut of properties created by the rush to buy properties before the extra Stamp Duty was introduced in April last year. Also, several large build-to-rent schemes have gone live in the capital this year, including the 1500-unit in the former Olympic Village. Zoned in Foxtons says the reason for this growth is an increase in demand for properties within London’s central Zone 1 and Zone 2…
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Sold! Auction house grows agent list by 25%
Auction house Network Auctions says it has grown its list of partner agents by over 25% so far this year, taking its total count to 100. The company, which was set up by Toby Limbrick, Stuart Elliott and Guy Charrison in 2009 says it has several more agent branches in the pipeline due to join its ranks. The latest to sign up is the Sherborne office of six-branch agent Rolfe East, which joins its founding office in Ealing, West London supplying properties to network’s regular auctions. Hotel hammer Network Auctions’ next event is at the Grovesnor Hotel in London on 7th September and Rolfe East Sherborne is putting up a Grade II listed former hotel in the village of Ash with permission to be converted back into residential use with a reserve price of £875,000 (see below). Rolfe East’s Managing Director and Sherborne office founder Lawrence Truett the reason so many agents are joining up with Network Auctions, and the reason he joined, is the company Network E auction product. This enables people to buy properties online which secures them an exclusivity period during which they have four weeks to arrange finance and surveys and preventing gazumping. “Network E is…
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