Haart placed firmly on the map

One of the UK’s largest independent estate and letting agents, Haart, has opened its latest ‘super’ branch in Leeds, with plans to open three more in Aylesbury, Plymouth and Wolverhampton next.

Each of the new property centres will have around 15 staff involved in sales, lettings, finance and administration, managed by an Area Partner, and will support 8-10 home-based sales and lettings Partners.

More than 50 home-based Partners have now been appointed, with a further 60 planned this year – and even more next year, with a long-term goal of covering every postcode in England and Wales. At the same time, 35 people have been recruited or promoted into Area Partner roles.

The new Haart Area Partner for Leeds, James Bryan, brings experience from previous roles with Purplebricks, Countrywide, Hunters and Knight Frank as well as running his own business.

Revealing the latest picture, Spicerhaart Group Managing Director, Antony Lark (left), said: “These are extremely exciting times for us as we continue to move forward with our innovative approach to estate agency.

“There is no doubt that this method, combining Property Centres with town-centre branches and home-based Partners, is the best model for estate agency right now. It’s great for the business and also offers more choice to our employees, and what we’re seeing is that where we lead, other agencies are starting to follow.

Despite being independently owned, the firm wants to take on the big corporate players with an aggressive growth strategy.

Lark added: “To ensure this growth could happen, we created three key Leadership roles: the Area Partner of a Property Centre, the Partnership Director and the Estate Agency Director. These all report into our Chapter Managing Directors and, as a team, they ensure that we attract, recruit and on-board the best talent into the Partnership roles and then work closely with them to create great businesses.”

Janette Churchill, a Partner in Norfolk, said: “My business has more than doubled since I became a Partner, with thanks to the support I have from the team at the Norwich Property Centre. They do an incredible job of arranging all the admin and sales progression while I concentrate on getting new instructions and exceeding our clients’ expectations!”