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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Property franchises broaden their horizons
The Property Franchise Group has teamed up with Legal & General and London & Country to offer their customers mortgages across the whole of the market. The Property Franchise Group, the UK’s largest property franchisor with 287 offices nationwide trading under various brand names including Martin & Co, Whitegates, CJ Hole, Parkers and Ellis & Co, hope that the new financial services arm will help to significantly boost company profits. London & Country, the UK’s largest fee free mortgage broker with a 3 per cent market share, expect to arrange in the region of £9 billion worth of mortgages and process 43,000 applications this year, of which 20 per cent are buy-to-let. Phillip Cartwright, Managing Director of London & Country, commented, “Our partnership with The Property Franchise Group is mutually beneficial and we are delighted to be associated with the UK’s largest property franchisor. They have one of the biggest client bases in the sector and we are looking forward to helping their customers take advantage of our award winning, fee free service.” The new financial service offered by The Property Franchise Group will be available via telephone and online. “We chose telephone and web fulfilment because people are busy…
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Leaders join forces with Romans
Leading letting agents Romans and Leaders have merged to create one of the largest property services providers in the UK, with more than 40,000 properties under management. The groups, which have branches in London and across the South East, East Anglia, the Midlands and the North West, have joined forces in an attempt to capitalise on the growing private rental sector. The new collaboration between Leaders, which has 118 branches, and Romans, which has 27 branches, to form Property Services Holdings, will lead to combined revenues of around £100 million. The agents are being merged by Bowmark Capital, the private equity firm, which backed the management buyouts of Leaders in 2010 and Romans in 2013. Mark Salter, a Partner at Bowmark Capital, commented, “Leaders and Romans are outstanding businesses in their own right, and both have delivered impressive profit growth under Bowmark’s ownership. “Bringing them together creates a leading lettings-focused property services group that is greater than the sum of the parts, and is perfectly positioned to capitalise on the positive market conditions.” ICG has provided a substantial senior debt facility to support the merger of the two brands, which will continue to operate autonomously, and has committed a further…
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The Negotiator wins at LSL Property Press Awards
The Negotiator magazine was recognised as the leading residential estate agency magazine at the LSL Property Press Awards 2016, beating all other residential agency entrants. The Negotiator magazine won the Bronze Award in the category: Property Trade Magazine of the Year, beaten only by Showhouse, a magazine for housebuilders and property developers, and Estates Gazette, which focuses on commercial property. In a second victory, The Negotiator’s Deputy Editor, Marc Da Silva, won the Bronze Award for Property Trade Magazine Journalist of the Year, beating a number of very well known journalists. The awards were presented on Monday 21st March at a champagne reception, hosted in London by Dame Joan Bakewell. Over 45 renowned property industry experts across a range of sectors judged the awards, choosing just 18 winners from over 160 entries. Property Supplement of the Year was awarded to Helen Davies, editor of the Sunday Times Home, while Overall Property Journalist of the Year was won by Carol Lewis, commissioning editor at The Times. The Lifetime Achievement award was presented to freelance journalist Caroline McGhie. Ian Crabb, CEO at LSL Property Services, commented: “Now in their 6th year, the LSL Property Press Awards recognise all of the stars working…
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Agent job site off to flying start
Job to advertise? Or are you looking to move? The Negotiator magazine has launched a new job board – www.thenegotiatorjobs.co.uk – specifically aimed at estate and letting agents and the residential property market. It is the first and only dedicated job board of its kind serving UK agency and already has over 300 top residential agency jobs on it for you to browse. The site is promoted through The Negotiator Magazine and online via a database of 30,000 property professionals. The site is available to agents to search for jobs and for agencies to advertise their vacancies, by a simple sign-up process and online credit card payment. Job seekers can set up an account with email alerts to let them know when a job suiting their requirements is posted. The site also features careers advice and useful articles for candidates. For recruiters, a standard job advert costs just £350+VAT and there are options to upgrade to increase visibility and run combined print and online campaigns – a unique offering in the market. Grant Leonard, Publisher at The Negotiator Jobs, said, “Being sector-focused, this is the site for quality jobs in agency and we’re delighted it has had such a warm…
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Ex-Countrywide Chief joins butters john bee
Former Countrywide estate agency leader, Bob Scarff, has been appointed Non-Executive Director at butters john bee. Scarff, who starts his new role with immediate effect, previously built and navigated the estate agency business at Countrywide plc, the UK’s largest property services group, to success over 37 years, helping the firm establish an estate agency network of more than 800 branches nationwide. Having started his estate agency career as a Trainee Negotiator at Taylors estate agents in 1978, Scarff will now use his vast experience to help butters john bee expand on its own estate agency and letting branch network. The company currently has 17 branches throughout Staffordshire, Cheshire, Shropshire and the West Midlands. James Beardmore, Managing Director at butters john bee, said, “It is fantastic to welcome Bob to the board. Having worked for the UK’s largest property services group for more than 30 years, Bob brings considerable experience and knowledge of the property industry to his advisory role. We are proud of our local heritage and that we are market leaders in the majority of the areas we operate in. We plan to continue to expand our footprint both organically and through acquisition in 2016, and Bob’s experience of…
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Leaders continues on expansion trail
Leaders further increased its regional footprint by completing the acquisition of Southend-based Tudor Estates last week – keeping the firm’s expansion plans on course. The deal to acquire Tudor Estates, which was founded in 1959, comes just weeks after Leaders absorbed another Essex company into its national network. More Estate Agents, with branches in Clacton, Colchester, Chelmsford and Braintree, joined the organisation in January. This is Leaders’ third acquisition this year following a busy 2015 in which it spent over £25 million on 11 acquisitions and 32 new branches. Leaders now have 118 branches in total, including five in Essex. “Adding a fifth branch to our growing presence in Essex is fantastic news. We believe the county is home to an important property market with plenty of potential, Kevin Shaw (left), National Sales Director at Leaders, said. He added, “The Tudor team has gained a tremendous reputation in Southend over many years and we look forward to building on this. This acquisition gives us a chance to extend our coverage in Essex and roll out our range of services to more sellers and landlords.” The entire Tudor team has opted to remain with Leaders, and Luke Chiddicks, Sales Manager at…
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Foxtons’ profits fall
Foxtons saw pre-tax profits fall by 2.6 per cent in 2015 as the slowdown in the central London housing market, where prices are falling, adversely impacted on its business. The decline in profits to £41 million from £42.1 million was in line with expectations for the FTSE 250 indexed company, which previously warned of property headwinds in the market, causing its shares price to fall. The volume of homes changing hands in the capital fell by seven per cent in November 2015, compared with the corresponding month a year earlier, according to Land Registry figures. But the expansion of Foxtons’ mortgage broking business, which increased revenues by 31.8 per cent, helped to compensate for slower growth in income from sales as well as lettings. But in spite of the fall in profits, group revenue was up for the year to 31st December, rising 4.1 per cent to £149.8 million, supported in part by the opening of seven new branches last year, bringing the total at year end to 58. Foxtons plan to open a further seven offices this year, as part of a wider strategy to increase their coverage within the M25 area to 100 offices within the next five…
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Countrywide acquires Finders Keepers in Oxford
Countrywide has increased its regional footprint in Oxfordshire with the acquisition of leading lettings agency, Finders Keepers. The company, which was founded in 1972 by Mary Channer, who is the mother of the firm’s existing Managing Director, Dan Channer, offers a plethora of lettings services and currently managers more than 2,000 homes and boasts a 99.3 per cent occupancy rate. Channer said, “I started Finders Keepers at the age of 27, and now that the digits are almost reversed I feel it is time to retire. This is made easier by knowing that the great team will stay in place and I am confident that Countrywide will be great custodians of the Finders Keepers brand, culture and business.” The acquisition of Finders Keepers forms part of Countrywide’s strategy of expansion through acquisition and organic growth across the UK. Bruce Evans, Commercial Director at Countrywide, said, “The business will be fully integrated within the overall Countrywide retail division giving landlord clients access to our exclusive range of products and services, and the benefit of our strong and secure infrastructure to support both landlords and tenants.” Meanwhile, Countrywide has also made a significant investment in ‘The Buy to Let Business’ to help…
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Number of firms going bust jumps by 16%
Despite a noteworthy increase in house prices last year, the number of estate agents going out of business has shot up, according to a major accountancy firm, Moore Stephens. Residential property prices in the UK rose by 6.7 per cent in 2015, according to the ONS, led by gains in England, at 7.3 per cent, but this was not enough to prevent 185 agents going bust last year, up from 160 in 2014, as local agencies were squeezed out by larger brands and ’no frills’ rivals, such as online players like Housesimple and PurpleBricks. The volume of agencies closing bucks the UK trend of decreasing numbers of insolvencies, with the national rate of business insolvencies across all sectors declining by 9 per cent over the same period from 16,558 to 15,027. Moore Stephens believes that the fixed-fee business model of many online agencies is putting increased pressure on margins for high street agents. At the same time, Moore Stephens says that local firms are losing business to larger chains that tend to have bigger sales and marketing budgets and can break into new local markets by offering greater incentives, such as a zero-commission deal. Mike Finch, Restructuring & Insolvency Partner…
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Connells eyes further expansion
The Connells Group is on course for what could be a record year in 2016 after seeing pre-tax profits increase sharply last year. The company, which this year celebrates its 80th anniversary and operates almost 550 branches nationwide, said all parts of the business “delivered a strong performance” last year. Connells posted pre-tax profits of £62.5 million for the year ended 31 December 2015, up 19 per cent year-on-year and an increase of 72 per cent over the last three years. But it is currently not known what the revenue figures for the year was as the Group did not disclose the data. David Livesey (left), Chief Executive at Connells, described 2015 as “another stunning year” for the Group, with all parts of the business delivering “a strong performance”. He commented, “The housing market has not been without its challenges, characterised by lack of stock, so to end the year with strong profits and having sold more properties than 2014 and 2013 is a tremendous achievement. “We remain at the forefront of our profession and to maintain this position we made further significant investments into the business in 2015.” Last year, the company ploughed £25 million into branch refurbishments, acquisitions,…
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