London prime estate agent Chestertons has put itself up for sale with a price tag of £100 million.

Sky News last night revealed that the agency’s owner, Libyan businessman Salah Mussa (pictured) who bought the company in 2005, has instructed professional services firm Deloitte to find a buyer for the company, which is headed in the UK by MD Guy Gittins.

The estate agency, which has a history reaching back 216 years, has been enjoying a bumper post-lockdown start to 2021 helped in part by Rishi Sunak’s Stamp Duty holiday.

It has 33 branches in and around central London and 452 staff and its latest accounts show a turnover of £45 million and a profit of £7 million.

Most of its turnover comes from lettings (£26.2 million) with sales generating £16.2 million, the rest coming from new homes and professional services.

Chestertons was reported to have been put up for sale in 2014, but no deal materialised, but if a buyer can be found then it will be latest twist in a complicated tale.

Long history

The company’s UK residential business was bought in 1986 by the Prudential, later sold to the Woolwich before being bought back by its international sister company in 1996, which carried on during this period expanding overseas.

During further mergers and expansion, by the 1990s it was one of the largest estate agencies in the world but in 2005 it was split up once again into a London UK operation with 16 branches, and an overseas operation, with Humberts added in 2009.

This lasted until 2014 when the two were de-merged and Chestertons bought by Saleh. It has continued both in central London but also expanded overseas again via a franchising model and now has 100 branches in total. It is this business which is now being offered for sale.