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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Andy Botha to join Zoopla as CFO
Andy Botha will replace Stephen Moran as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) it has been officially announced. Botha joins the company on Monday 18th April, coming from notonthehighstreet.com where he has been Chief Commercial & Financial Officer since 2013. He has also held senior commercial and financial roles at Betfair and lastminute.com. In a statement on Monday, ZPG said Botha has a proven ability to execute different multi-brand, multi-channel business models across the digital and technology sectors. “He brings with him a wealth of highly relevant experience in tech businesses and demonstrable success in leading financial teams and business units during periods of high-growth,” said Chairman Mike Evans. Botha will join ZPG’s recently strengthened senior leadership team, which includes Paul Whitehead as the newly appointed Group Strategy Director. Paul was most recently Chief Commercial Officer at uSwitch (recently acquired by ZPG) and was previously Head of Corporate and Business Development at Channel 4 for six years. Alex Chesterman (left), Founder & CEO of Zoopla Property Group Plc, said, “I am very much looking forward to working closely with Andy and Paul as we continue to deliver on our strategy. There is much to play for…
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Lomond Capital acquires agency
Lomond Capital has continued to expand with the acquisition of John Shepherd estate agents in Birmingham taking its portfolio in the city to in excess of £250 million. The Edinburgh-based firm will now merge John Shepherd estate agency with Birmingham-based Marwood Homes and John Shepherd Lettings, which are also owned by Lomond Capital. The company forecast that the enlarged business will now manage more than £250 million worth of properties for private landlords and sell in excess of £200 million worth of property annually. Stuart Pender (left), Chief Executive of Lomond Capital, said, “The merger of John Shepherd Estate Agents with our existing businesses allows us to create a full service proposition for our clients under the leading estate agents brand in the region.” Lomond Capital, which currently has businesses in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester, is now seeking to make further acquisitions across both lettings and estate agents in Birmingham as well as part parts of the UK. The company is currently in negotiations with estate agents and lettings businesses in Bristol, Brighton, Reading, Oxford and Cardiff. “This is the first in a number of larger acquisitions planned in the south of England,” Pender added. “Our aim is to…
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Network Auctions Conference deemed a success
The popularity of property auctions in the UK has increased enormously in recent years, providing sellers with an alternative means of disposing of property, as well as providing estate agents with yet another potential revenue stream, not to mention an opportunity to add an extra string to their bow in terms of the services that they provide their clients with. While there is little to stop an agency setting up their own auctions department, many opt to establish links with one or more experienced auctioneers, which may explain why Network Auctions’ partner agent conference at the Grosvenor House hotel in London last week was so well attended. More than 60 partner agents from all over the UK attended the event, which included presentations from a host of leading industry figures, including David Sandeman of the EI Group, industry trainer Tim Wakelin and property industry mentor Michael Day of Integra Property Services. The conference also saw the launch of Network E, which is a new method of sale that enables sellers for whom a traditional auction process is unsuitable, to still benefit from the certainty and speed of the auction process. An online bidding system creates an exclusivity agreement upon the…
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Countrywide upgrades profit forecast
Countrywide has increased its profit forecast on the back of the improving state of the residential property market. Shares in Britain’s biggest estate agency- seen as an indicator of the health of the residential property sector – rose by as much as 5.6 per cent at one point last week after it announced that it now expects pre-tax profit and other charges to reveal a “modest improvement” on its previous expectations. In November, the company warned investors that it would not hit its full-year profit forecasts for 2015, after an expected post-election boost in the housing market failed to materialise. But despite the upturn in profit forecast, Countrywide said that the future state of the housing market remained uncertain, particularly due to the hike in stamp duty on second homes, which is set to be introduced in April, not to mention Government plans to introduce less favourable tax relief for landlords – to be phased in over a four-year period from April 2017. The company said: “It is too early to predict what the trend in residential transactions will show in 2016, although approved mortgage volumes including owner occupier in recent months have been ahead of the previous year, which…
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Signs of change
Purplebricks, EasyProperty, Hatched – online agents are snaffling all the headlines, giving the Martian, arriving from space in January, the idea that traditional estate agencies have been consigned to history. Purplebricks says it will float on the AIM market for £230 million, easyProperty has now banked funding totaling £39.25 million and Sequence has paid an undisclosed but ‘significant’ sum to acquire Hatched, saving them the trouble of creating their own ‘online’ brand. Traditional agents need to research the competition and maybe adjust their services to survive – and thrive. The figures are eye-watering; massive faith in unproved businesses, dramatic headlines about how much sellers will save, gleeful predictions of the imminent death of ‘rip-off agents.’ But is it real? Is that nosy house-hunting Martian going to find defunct estate agencies on every high street? Is he going to find thousands of listings for homes on online agency sites? CEO of easyProperty, Rob Ellice, says, “This new, very substantial investment is a significant step for easyProperty; the most widely recognised consumer brand in a very fragmented estate agency market.” However, since the orange fanfare blew 15 months ago, there has been a lot of noise, but when you visit their website,…
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Big boost for OnTheMarket
Nottingham Estate Agency and Harrison Murray Estate Agency have announced their membership of OnTheMarket.com. Both part of the Nottingham Building Society, the two brands have a total of 37 branches. They will now be advertising all of their properties for sale and to rent at OnTheMarket.com and Rightmove. With more than 25 years’ experience as independent estate agents, Nottingham Estate Agency and Harrison Murray Estate Agency are amongst the largest regional estate agencies with offices in nine counties. OnTheMarket.com announced on Wednesday, January 14th, 2016 that the level of overall support for the portal had risen beyond 6,500 estate and letting agent offices across the UK, which is an increase of more than 50 per cent since this time last year. The announcement comes eight weeks after OnTheMarket.com revealed support had exceeded 6,000 offices. The figure consists of contracted members and agents who have signed a Letter of Intent to join OnTheMarket.com when total support reaches 7,500 offices – which is OnTheMarket.com’s next major milestone. Su Snaith (left), Head of Estate Agency at the Nottingham Estate Agency and Harrison Murray Estate Agency, said, “The achievements of OnTheMarket.com over the last year have been impressive. It is already established as a…
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Purplebricks floats on AIM
Purplebricks, which allows homeowners to sell their properties for a flat fee from £665 plus VAT, floated on the AIM market last week at a value of £240.3 million, with shares initially trading at an opening price of 104.5p before dropping to 96.5p. The company, which launched in April 2014, is backed by some heavyweight investors, including prominent Fund Manager Neil Woodford, Paul Pindar (left), the retired Chief Executive of outsourcing group Capita, and Errol Damelin, the Founder of payday lender Wonga. Purplebricks, which has swiftly established itself as the number one online estate agency, prides itself on offering a cheaper service than traditional estate agents and currently lists in the region of 4,300 homes for sale, and said its market share among the top six online estate agents had grown to in excess of 60 per cent. Purplebricks charges a flat fee of £665 plus VAT for a sale in the UK, rising to £965 plus VAT in prime London post codes. There are some additional charges for a premium service. The funds raised from the float will allow Purplebricks to increase its presence across the UK, according to Chief Executive Michael Bruce. He said, “The funds raised will…
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Leaders moves into Warwickshire
Leaders has continued its expansion with the addition of two new branches in Leamington Spa and Kenilworth after completing the acquisition of Heritage Property, which traded from premises in the two Warwickshire towns. A total of 11 new businesses and 32 additional branches have been secured by the company over the course of 2015 – meaning the last 12 months have been its most active yet in the acquisitions market. The Leaders network now spans some 113 branches across the UK. This year’s acquisitions mean that Leaders now has a presence in 22 counties, having moved into Worcestershire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire for the first time this year. The company now has in excess of 45,000 tenanted properties on its books and handles in the region of £28.5 million in rent every month. Matthew Light (left), Acquisitions Director at Leaders, said, “We have spent more than £25 million on acquiring new businesses this year, which has helped to take our branch network beyond 100 locations. “With so much experience in this area, more vendors are now viewing us as the perfect acquirer of their company when they decide to sell. We have shown we always deliver on our promises,…
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easyProperty secures Tosca backing
easyProperty, the online estate agent, has raised £25 million from its third round of funding from a London-based hedge fund and a consortium of angel investors, valuing the company at more than £100 million. The investment was secured within three weeks for exchange of just under 15 per cent equity in the business. Under the terms of the deal, the company will access £16 million immediately, with a further £9 million earmarked for future growth. The lead investor, Toscafund, a London-based hedge fund, has put forward £14 million in investment, with the additional £2 million being co-led by existing and new investors. “This new, very substantial investment from Toscafund is a real opportunity to keep expanding both in the sales and lettings markets in the UK and in pan-European property services, and a sure indication of how we plan to take the market share from traditional high street agencies, said CEO of easyProperty, Rob Ellice (left). Martin Hughes, from Toscafund, said: “easyProperty offers the brand, technology and management to enable a considerable saving to property transaction costs compared to the incumbents. The online process is an impressive disruptive approach to ease a much needed overcharged road block to the population…
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Recruitment firm to double in size
Deverell Smith, the specialist property recruitment consultancy, has announced plans to double in size over the next 12 months in response to soaring demand. From expansions and new start-ups to franchise roll-outs, the recent increase in housing market activity has led to a rise in the number of agencies looking to hire new members of staff to help deal with new business, and Deverell Smith has responded by announcing plans to recruit up to 70 new members of staff. Andrew Deverell-Smith (left), CEO, commented, “The market potential in property for recruitment is huge, we have expanded to provide recruitment services within every sector of the industry, and in some sectors, although we are market leaders, we really are still only scratching the surface.“By attracting the best talent in recruitment and knowledgeable property professionals to our company we plan to become the UK’s driving force in property recruitment.” Chris Long (right), Talent Development Director for Deverell Smith, has been tasked with recruiting and developing staff for the firm. Reflecting on the London-based company’s recruitment strategy, he said that it was important to not only attract but retain the best talent. He said, “Over the past twelve months we have carried out…
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