A recently-created ‘property powerhouse’ built from the joint businesses of investment firm Lomond Capital and estate agency Linley & Simpson says it is planning big expansion push this year.

Both firms have been on the acquisition trail recently and the new group, which is shaping up to be the industry’s next corporate name, now includes regional brands in Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Birmingham and Brighton.

These include Thornley Groves, Brand Vaughan, John Shepherd, Stonehouse and Braemore which combined have a letting portfolio of over 23,0000 properties under management.

Will Linley (pictured above), the former CEO of Yorkshire-based estate agency Linley & Simpson and now Group Managing Director of the Lomond Group, says: “We are delighted with progress on acquisitions during the first quarter and envisage this level of activity being at least maintained if not exceeded over the balance of the year.

“We have seen significant interest from agents keen to join our rapidly increasing network of good quality regional agencies.”

The recently consolidated venture is backed with cash from Lloyds Bank’s venture capital arm, the bank’s second foray into the estate agency sector.

In 1982 Lloyds went on an extraordinary buying spree hoovering up agencies across the UK, selling the business in 1998 to Bradford & Bingley, which went on to become Countrywide.

This process could soon be repeated, as Linley says he is actively pursuing a number of other acquisitions, and has put together a new acquisitions team headed up by former LSL acquisitions chief Lucy Noonan.

“She is the first of a number of appointments that will be joining us over the next two months, as we build the team to support our growing network of quality regional lettings and estate agencies,” says Linley.