Dorian Gonsalves
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Latest property news
Fifth of independent letting agents will disappear by 2020, says Belvoir
The UK's largest franchised estate agency chain Belvoir predicts that there will be 20% fewer independent letting agents by 2020.
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Belvoir’s 300-plus branches join OnTheMarket as CEO blasts Rightmove and Zoopla
Read how leading and 300 branch franchise network estate agency brand Belvoir has signed up to join OnTheMarket and now lists on all three portals.
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Northwood MD Eric Walker promoted to run whole of Belvoir
The MD of Northwood Eric Walker has been promoted to run the whole four-brand operation of parent group Belvoir Lettings Plc.
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Belvoir set to double number of rent guarantee policies as tenant fee ban looms
Belvoir says its partnership with Let Alliance is paying dividends as its franchisees sell more rent guarantee insurance to plug looming tenant fees ban.
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Belvoir reveals £200k legal bill for failed TPFG merger bid
Despite the knock-back, the franchising giant says its group profits before tax for 2017 were up by a staggering 62%.
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Tenant fees ban and extra red tape will cause ‘bonfire of the small letting agents’
Before you read on, if you haven’t signed the petition against the ban, SIGN HERE! It needs just a few more signatures for it to become a question that the House of Commons must examine. The lettings sector is to see many smaller agencies exit the market as increased regulation and next year’s tenant fees ban began to bite, it has been claimed. Franchised lettings giant Belvoir has revealed in its latest trading update that the group expects to help its franchisees ‘mop up’ as increasing numbers of smaller local rivals shut down over the next year or more. Belvoir also says it is doing well, despite its failed attempt to merge with rival The Property Franchise Group – owner of Martin & Co – in October last year. Fees from franchisees increased by 22% and overall group revenue increased by 13% to £9.9 million, both figures boosted by its first full-year contributions from Northwood, which it bought in June 2016, and the recruitment of six new franchise owners. Belvoir also says it is helping its franchisees expand as much through rental portfolio buy-ups as franchised branch openings. The latest results show that its network hoovered up 23 such portfolios,…
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UK’s largest franchise agency group to become leading mortgage broker
Belvoir is to roll out its recent-acquired mortgage broker business Brook Financial Services across its 300-strong branch network of four brands – Belvoir, Northwood, Goodchilds and Newton Fallowell – in a bid to become one of the high street’s larger agency mortgage brokers. The announcement, which will help reassure City investors following Belvoir’s recent failed attempt to merge with Martin & Co parent company The Property Franchise Group, reveals that the roll-out is beginning with its most sales-focussed brand, Newton Fallowell. It has 39 branches in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Rutland and Staffordshire and was itself bought by Belvoir in July 2015. Brook, which trades as the Mortgage Advice Bureau and is based in Barnsley at a business park (pictured, above), was bought by Belvoir for £2 million in July this year and its services are now available within 25 of the Newton Fallowell branches, including 17 new ones since Brook was acquired. This, coupled with more business from independent estate agents who use Brook’s services, helped the financial services firm write new business worth £570,000 over the past two months, putting it 40% ahead of its performance last year. “The roll out to the Newton Fallowell offices is underway…
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Lettings legislation: is Government listening to the professionals?
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s autumn budget has failed to address the challenges faced by Britain’s ten million renters, says Belvoir CEO Dorian Gonsalves (pictured). “We are disappointed that despite persuasive arguments from many key financial and industry experts, there has been no reversal of the punitive tax changes that were imposed on landlords by George Osborne in 2015,” says Dorian. “We believe that reversing those tax changes would have been an important factor in helping to increase the supply of rental properties in this country and would alleviate some of the pressure on a Private Rental Sector (PRS) that is facing unprecedented stress as tenant demand continues to increase and less good quality housing is available to accommodate this. Dorian says that it isn’t just a lack of a deposit and affordability issues in buying a home that aree driving tenant demand – “In many ways this budget seemed almost to put an unhealthy emphasis on home ownership and failed to recognise that many young people are actively choosing to rent rather than to become first time buyers. “The reasons for renting are numerous, the English Housing Survey of 2015-16 showed that first time buyers are increasingly likely to live in…
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Belvoir funds ten more acquisitions by its Northwood franchisees of local rivals
Belvoir has taken a moment from its attempt to merge with rival Martin & Co to reveal that ten of its Northwood franchisees have acquired local rival businesses, adding 1,000 additional properties under management and £140,000 a year to Belvoir’s group revenues. Northwood was bought by Belvoir in June last year, adding 86 branches to the group’s total, which now stands at over 300. Belvoir says the uptick in Northwood franchisees acquiring rivals – which includes five in the past two months alone – has been prompted by Belvoir introducing its Assisted Acquisition programme to Northwood, half of whose franchisees have now signed up to join. In practical terms, this means Belvoir searches out local rivals ripe for acquisition and then helps the Northwood franchisees broker and fund the deals as well as providing legal, due diligence and business advice support. Northwood franchisees Belvoir says it usually agrees to fund up to 30% of the cost of the acquisition, which are “nearly always full business transfers and not tenders for the management of properties,” the company says. It also claims that Northwood has been growing fast over the past 18 months helped by the assisted acquisition programme but also organic…
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Belvoir merger with Martin & Co put to shareholders
Franchise lettings giant Belvoir is to attempt a merger between itself and The Property Franchise Group, owners of Martin & Co, after it today made an official offer to start direct discussions with both TPFG and Belvoir shareholders. Belvoir’s directors believe a merger between the two franchise networks would be in the “best long-term interest of both companies and their respective shareholders”. But Belvoir has gone public with the proposed merger only after the TPFG board rejected its overtures despite having previously shown a willingness to engage on the subject, Belvoir says. The time is ripe for industry consolidation, Belvoir CEO Dorian Gonsalves (pictured left) says, hinting at the difficulties that may be ahead for the lettings sector following the fees ban later this year, and “that a more broadly based multi franchise group will be better positioned to leverage the opportunities in the sector and that the shareholders of the respective companies are looking for such leadership”. The proposed merger would, through a mixture of cash and shares, see TPFG shareholder take a 34.6% stake in a new enlarged group and create a UK property franchise group with 683 outlets and 108,000 tenanted managed properties. TPFG shareholders would receive…
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