connells
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Latest property news
Connells reveals good start to year and increased market share during 2017
The Connells Group has made a bullish opening trading statement for 2018 revealing that more applicants are registering to buy homes with the company. “We are delighted to be entering 2018 with a pipeline that is up compared to last year, and we are confident that, through our breadth of experience, we will continue to build on the success of 2017 and further increase our market share in 2018,” says David Plumtree, Connells Group Estate Agency Chief Executive (pictured, below). Connells also says the company increased its market share last year by 4% despite official figures likely to reveal a 10% decrease in the number of people moving home during 2017, it says. Despite the sales slowdown, Connells says the number of properties it sold decreased by only 3% last year and that “clearly the increase in our share of the new instruction market has enabled us to fare better than the market as a whole in respect of our sales results,” says David Plumtree. Connells results are in stark contrast to its main rival in the market, Countrywide, which yesterday revealed that its income from sales and lettings decreased by 14% last year. Unwavering focus “During the course of…
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Movers & Shakers
Connells appoints new Divisional Managing Director
A new Divisional Managing Director for Connells Residential, one of the UK’s largest and most successful estate agencies and part of the Connells Group, has been appointed.
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Latest property news
A Question of Property: Liz Brown, MD of Connells, Midlands
How big is your part of Connells? I look after 55 branches and approximately 140 staff in the Midlands for Connells including land, new homes, mortgages services, sales and lettings. Are online/hybrid agents making headway? They were during the first six months of the year when the market was more buoyant, and the instruction-to sale conversion rate was high up at the 80%. It’s then that we saw a considerable take-up among vendors for hybrid agents. But as the market has become tougher, so this has changed. Vendors are realising the hard way that in more difficult markets, you need a little more expertise and proactive support to achieve a sale. You’ve got to know your customer base much better and be able to be able to put chains together. We are picking up instructions from online agents, which fall into two categories. These are either failed online attempts to sell – people who’ve tried online and haven’t sold and who are then seriously annoyed when they have to pay twice. Then there are the people who do get an offer via a hybrid-type agency listing, but the sale goes nowhere, and they have to abandon the offer and start…
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Latest property news
Has a Welsh lettings industry consolidation begun as regulation bites?
The impact of greater regulation of the Welsh lettings sector via Rent Smart Wales and a likely copycat lettings fee ban in the pipeline appears to have persuaded one agent in Wales to offload its entire property management division. Cardiff-based Peter Alan, the largest Welsh estate agent with 29 branches which is part of the Connells Group, has bought the lettings business of Newport-based rival Roberts & Co Property Management Limited for an undisclosed sum. Roberts & Co’s lettings business, which was established a decade ago, manages 800 properties – down from 1,200 three years ago – and employs 17 staff who now join the existing ranks of Peter Alan’s 270-strong team. Strategic sale Roberts & Co says the money raised from its ‘strategic’ sale of its lettings business will enable it to invest and expand its sales and mortgage services business. Its lettings staff will be transferred to Peter Alan and the Roberts & Co brand will eventually disappear from the market. “We are really pleased to have acquired Roberts & Co’s lettings and property management business which allows us the opportunity to further enhance an already successful business and work with many talented individuals,” says Andrew Barry, Peter…
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Latest property news
That’s loyalty! Connells Chairman celebrates 40 years with the company
A study of business leaders around the world recently found that the UK’s move on faster than in any other country apart from Brazil, Russian and India. The average tenure at the top is 4.8 years, down from 8.3 years seven years ago, the research by PwC revealed. No one has told the chairman of Connells Group, Stephen Shipperley (pictured, right), about this because this month he is celebrating his 40th anniversary with the company. “My own experience is testament to the emphasis that the company places on developing people within this business, giving those with potential the opportunities to advance and progress,” he says. “As a result, we have some of the best people in the industry and good people stay here. Most of our management, local, middle and senior, have been with the company 10, 20, 30 years.” Stephen joined the company as a Negotiator at its Aylesbury branch in 1977, twenty years before some of today’s younger trainees were born. He gave up the opportunity to go to university to join Connells direct from school and by 21 was a branch manager, helping the office become the most profitable in the company. By 1990, when he was…
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Movers & Shakers
Trevor Hill’s new role
Trevor Hill, who has, after over 35 years with the company, stepped down from his role as Land & New Homes Regional Director is to take a new consultancy position exclusively for Connells.
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Latest property news
NHBC: Latest new home registrations
Developers registered 40,000 new homes to be built in the UK during Q2 2017, according to NHBC’s latest new home registration statistics.
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Latest property news
Sequence buys up its second independent agent in four weeks
Connells subsidiary Sequence has begun an aggressive push to buy up independent agents and has announced its second purchase this month via its main high street brand, William H Brown. Following the purchase of Enfield, North London agent Barnfields at the beginning of August, William H Brown has now bought a second agent, Cory & Co in the Essex port town of Harwich (pictured, right). Like Barnfields, Cory & Co is an independent family-run agency but unlike it, Cory & Co’s founder is retiring and the business is being absorbed into the local William H Brown branch. Norman Cory (pictured, left) established Cory & Co in 1981 trading in the Harwich, Dovercourt and surrounding villages and is also a leading light in the local town and keen Rotarian. William H Brown will transfer its lettings, property management and remaining sales deals into its existing branch along with three members of staff. Sequence “This acquisition strengthens our position in the local market and fits our targeted approach of building our managed property portfolio,” says Mike Rowley, Acquisitions Director for Sequence (pictured, right). “There is huge demand for rental property in Harwich and its surrounding areas and we’re looking forward to welcoming…
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Latest property news
Connells says sales market picking up as it reveals increased profits
Estate agency group Connells has revealed a ‘stable’ first six month of the year with revenue up by 4% and profits before tax increasing by £200,000 to £31.5 million. Its half year results have been described by the business as “consistently strong” despite the subdued sales market during the opening months of the year, although Connells says it recorded an up-tick in instructions during June and says there is a more positive outlook for the rest of the summer. “We enter the second half of the year with a noticeably higher pipeline compared to last year and, with the imbalance between demand and supply still the key market feature, our outlook for the rest of the year remains positive,” says Group CEO David Livesey (pictured, left). “The noticeable cooling in the market, as a result of uncertainty “Our performance signals Connells Group’s strength in what has undoubtedly been an unsettled marketplace,” surrounding the Brexit negotiations, was further compounded by the snap general election which did little to boost consumer sentiment. Our breadth of business brought resilience, allowed us to gain market share and consolidate our position as the UK’s most profitable estate agency group.” Connells Group says its 4% increase…
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Latest property news
Hatched founder joins easyProperty as Head of Operations
Adam Day, the founder of online estate agency Hatched.co.uk has joined easyProperty.com as its Head of Operations, just 15 months after Hatched was bought by Connells. On his Linkedin profile Adam lists himself as “taking a break” in between leaving Hatched earlier this month and joining easyProperty, although in December last year Adam was on a recruitment for more Hatched agents, saying it was an “exciting time to join our business as we continue to build on the successes of previous years”. Adam (pictured, right) has joined easyProperty to set up the systems and procedures that will transform the website from an exclusively consumer-facing operation into the geographically licensed B2B offering that easyProperty CEO Jon Cooke describes as “the convergence of high street agency with online sales and lettings”. And Adam has his work cut out – easyProperty expects to relaunch in September this year. £60m deal with GPEA Adam’s arrival at easyProperty follows the £60m deal between the Guild of Professional Estate Agents and easyProperty to merge earlier this month and that 270-plus GPEA members have signed up so far to be easyProperty licensees out of a potential pool of 800. In return for a fee, easyProperty is licensing…
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