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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Boxing charity event Rumble with the Agents launches
Rumble with the Agents, the white-collar charity boxing event hosted for the last two years by Landlord Action, in association with Hamilton Fraser, is returning for a third year. The event will be held on Thursday 25th May 2017, and the team is requesting the support of men and women from all sides of the property industry looking for a New Year challenge. The event will once again raise funds for Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, North London’s only ‘Hospice at Home’ service, providing support for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families. The charity also provides respite and support to families, helping them to face the future with hope after bereavement. Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Acton, said, “We’re offering individuals the chance to get fit and try a new sport in a safe and professional environment, whilst supporting the wonderful work of Noah’s Ark, who are hoping to build a new state of the art hospice by 2018.” Rumble with the Agents has some keen participants already signed up, but the event requires a total of 12 boxers, so remaining places are on a first come first served basis. There will be six fights lasting six…
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All time low? Liverpool flat to start bidding at £1
SDL Graham Penny, the new name for the successful auctioneer in Leicester, has a ground floor flat set to go under the hammer at its next auction with a guide price of only £1!
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Jones Robinson Group merges with Martin Walker
Newbury based estate agency the Jones Robinson Group has merged with Devizes based estate agency Martin Walker.
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Belvoir expands into the Orkney Islands
Amjed Rasul, owner of Belvoir Inverness, has acquired Orkney Leasing.
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Property sharing experts rebrands
More than 80 independent estate agency offices in the South West have become the Experts in Property after a full rebrand of the former Property Sharing Experts network. After many months of deliberation with focus groups, board meetings and member input as well as consultations with five design agencies, the network enlisted the services of the Bristol-based Pace design lab to come up with a striking new logo and marketing material that can be adopted by all member agencies. The network has brand new @expertsinprop twitter and facebook pages and the house graphic works well as an App icon. Steve Moir, Chairman of the Experts in Property, said, “The new branding is fresh, unmistakeable and much more adequately reflects the professionalism and services of our agency members. It also has greater adaptation qualities to work alongside and positively enhance our members’ own branding.”
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Admin and contract fees ‘morally reprehensible’ says leading letting agent
A London estate agent has labelled letting agents’ administration and contract fees charged to tenants as ‘indefensible and morally reprehensible’ and says that is why his company doesn’t charge them. The comments came in an opinion piece written for North London newspaper the Ham&High by Simon Gerrard of 13-branch sales and letting agent Martyn Gerrard, which bills itself as the agent ‘where integrity counts’. “There are only two reasons why agents charge the fees. Some cut their fees to landlords to attract stock and then simply charge hazily explained admin fees to the tenants to make up the shortfall,” he says. “Alternatively, and even worse, some agents still charge the landlord the full fee and then also charge the tenants. “Either way it is estimated that a ban of these tenant fees will wipe 10-20 per cent off the turnover of agents who have been charging these spurious fees to tenants. Although this may result in fewer cut price unregulated agents, which is no bad thing, the unintended consequence is that tenants will ultimately be worse off.” Martyn Gerrard, which was established in 1964, does charge tenants a fee, albeit a much lower one than the government’s £233 national average,…
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Emson November sales rocket
Clive Emson sold land and property worth more than £18.5 million at its latest sale.
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Hunters reports strong performance as Harry Hill steps down from CEO role
Sales and letting franchise business Hunters has reported a strong performance in the second half of its financial year despite the challenges of the second homes Stamp Duty changes and Brexit, it says. This includes an aggressive push for more franchisees, its trading update reveals. Hunters says it is on track to add 30 franchisees this year taking the total to 180 branches of which 11 are owned and 169 franchised. The company which floated on AIM in July last year, also reports that during 2015 existing businesses reporting their first full calendar year with the group grew turnover by 29%. This has helped increase revenue for Hunters, which says network income to 31st October 2016 was almost £29 million, an increase of 16% on last year’s results. The company also has reported that its network is split 58/42 between the south and north, and the lettings income increased by 18% compared to last year. But Hunters also says it is less exposed to a potential ban on tenant fees because 72% of its group revenues are from sales and that it is therefore “confident [the company] can manage and adapt accordingly”. “The Board is aware that the industry experienced…
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Fees complaint to ASA highlights new ‘hybrid’ landlord
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today published a complaint about Ace Relocations, a hybrid HMO landlord that offers professional renters in London rooms within shared properties and blocks of flats and calls itself a ‘house share company’. The complaint was about an advert that the company had place on Spareroom.com, which stated that all bills were included and a cleaner provided. The ASA considered that the advert was likely to have breached its advertising code because “it does not make it clear that the cleaner, and some other costs, are not included in the monthly rent despite the main claim made in the ad”, the ASA said. Ace Relocations agreed to amend both its current website listings and any future adverts, and the ASA file case was closed. What this highlights is the emerging world of hybrid-landlords-cum-property-managers like Ace Relocations. It offers agents and indirectly landlords the opportunity to rent properties outside the traditional tenancy model. Ace Relocations says it is ‘not an estate agent’. It rents properties directly from agents via a ‘commercial contract’ and then rents them to professional tenants. The company doesn’t describe itself as a landlord but, like one, collects the rent and holds the deposit while, like an…
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Countrywide closures: IoW agent latest to shut branches
The Countrywide closures saga continues after one of its agents on the Isle of Wight became the latest to have branches closed and staff redeployed or put through a consultation process. Watson Bull & Porter, which currently has eight branches on the island and had already closed its Shanklin office before the latest announcement, says it is to close a further two branches, possibly by the end of the year. The company, which has been trading for over 150 years, would not reveal which two offices would face closure as their staff are going through a consultation process before they close their doors. Countrywide released a statement to local media saying that “as always, we remain committed to working with colleagues to ensure that those who wish to be redeployed are supported in doing so”. The company also said that it had ‘updated’ all its staff last week on changes to its retail and London businesses about the “next phase of change which includes streamlining our branch footprint and strengthening our regional management structure”. The Isle of Wight closures are part of a move by Countrywide to slim down its operations which has included the amalgamation of several London agencies into the…
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