Estate agency giant Spicerhaart is planning to open a number of additional Local Property Centre branches across the UK during the next five years.

This includes a new City Partnership model for metropolitan areas including in London, Bristol and Birmingham.

Its Local Property Centres are the basis for the company’s Partnership programme, which kicked off in July 2020 and will eventually see initially some 250 directly-employed staff working more flexibly including at home as well as from the centres.

Its initial locations have been in Newport (pictured), Leeds and Aylesbury along with a 3,000 sq ft ‘Plymouth and the South West of England’ centre – a hub in Wolverhampton is also expected.

“We have exciting plans to expand our branch network across our seven brands as part of our ambition to cover every postcode in England and Wales and reach £35m profit,” says Spicerhaart Group Managing Director Antony Lark.

Home-based

“The success of our haart Partnership model, where our home-based teams are supported by Local Property Centre hubs, has given us the confidence to extend our reach even further, complementing our wider branch network.”

Spicerhaart, which made a £9 million profit last year despite the challenges of Covid, is expecting to have another successful year, enabling it to invest even further in growth.

CEO Paul Smith (pictured) says: “As well as investing heavily in our teams and branches, we also have ambitions to acquire other estate agency and letting businesses that share our ethos.

“As early pioneers of the Partnership business model, it is important to stress that home-based working does not mean we no longer need branches, it’s the exact opposite, we need both.

“Technology means you don’t need physical High Street branches in every location but you can still offer exactly the same service and reach more postcodes, it’s just a different way of working.

“If our results are anything to go by, we can safely say that this is the future and is far more profitable without expensive overheads, giving our teams greater flexibility and choice in the way they work, at the same time.”