Martin & Co
-
Latest property news
‘Only strong letting agents will survive fees ban’
Not many letting agents can say they have been able to buy up three rivals within three years of establishing their business from scratch. But that is what Angela Newark can claim after revealing today that she has bought the property management portfolio of sales and now former letting agent Martin Lonsdale in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, taking her managed stock to over 800 properties. In 2014 she cold-started a Martin & Co franchised branch in Saltaire but then bought rival Village Estates in 2015 and then the Keighley office of Whitegates in 2016 (pictured, below), also part of the Martin & Co family. Letting agents “I’m a beneficiary of the multi-brand strategy of The Property Franchise Group as I trade both as Whitegates and Martin & Co,” she says. “Central office assisted me with the acquisitions and I’m looking at other businesses currently. I know agents are worried about the tenant fee ban, but the strong will survive, and my business is now set for further growth in 2018”, said Angela. The Property Franchise Group owns six franchised lettings brands including Martin & Co, EweMove, CJ Hole, Ellis & Co, Parkers and Whitegates and operation nearly 300 branches. The detail of the tenant fees ban…
Read More » -
Latest property news
It’s over! Belvoir pulls out of merger attempt with Martin & Co parent company
Franchise letting agency giant Belvoir has ended its attempted takeover bid for rival The Property Franchise Group (TPFG), parent company of Martin & Co and five other brands including hybrid agency EweMove. Belvoir today announced that it was ending its attempts to persuade TPFG shareholders to back Belvoir’s attempts to buy TFPF and merge the two businesses. Despite having considerable goodwill, Belvoir has admitted that without the support of the key TPFG directors and their share-owning backers a deal would be difficult, if not impossible. Belvoir’s statement confirming the withdrawal of the merger offer says: “The Belvoir board is disappointed that the TPFG board has declined to enter into a dialogue, not least given that the board itself has recognised the scale that would be achieved in combining the two businesses, and moreover, given a number of common institutional shareholders have publicly stated their support, in principle, for a dialogue between the boards of Belvoir and TPFG with regard to the Possible Merger Offer”. End of the bid The end of the bid to merge the two businesses has been prompted by the timetable that companies entering into a takeover must stick to, as set out in the City Code…
Read More » -
Latest property news
What went wrong? Belvoir reveals merger with TPFG DID have green light
Belvoir has responded to the brush-off delivered by The Property Franchise Group (TPFG) on 19th October which said the merger of the two businesses “would not be in the best interests” of TPFG. TPFG owns franchised lettings giant Martin & Co and online agency EweMove as well as CJ Hole, Ellis & Co, Parkers and Whitegates with a combined branch count of almost 300 and 50,000 tenanted properties. The board of directors at Belvoir says it is “disappointed” by the response and that the merger offer made by Belvoir was not an unsolicited one. Also, reading in between the lines of the statement, TPFG appears to have led Belvoir to believe the merger offer would be well received. Belvoir merger with TPFG Belvoir says there was previously a “willingness to engage in discussions expressed to the Board on more than one occasion by TPFG”. The company says its merger offer was structured to reflect these discussions, which included issuing 0.7150 new shares per TPFG share and 52.2p in cash per TPFG share, but says the cash element of the offer could be reduced and the number of shares increased to reduce the cost of the merger. Belvoir also says it…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Exeter estate agent rented out homes FOR SALE in £10k lettings fraud
An Exeter estate agent who fraudulently rented out homes on Gumtree that were for sale and who also stole over £1,000 in cash from his employer has been released on bail. Andrew Boyne, who in court admitted theft and 13 counts of fraud totalling £10,000, conducted the brazen lettings scam by advertising properties to let on Gumtree that were really properties for sale in Exeter listed with both his own agency and others. The 34-year-old then asked potential tenants for £200 holding fees and in some cases rent in advance. During the case at Exeter Crown Court, Devon Live reports that Gareth Evans, prosecuting, told the court that “on more than one occasion, people would actually move in, only to be told later that they had no right to be there”. Financial dificulties Boyne, who appears to have had a good reputation as an agent prior to the offences including several glowing reviews online for his sales progression and negotiating skills, got into financial difficulties and then turned to gambling to solve them but making his situation worse, Lee Brembridge, defending, told the court. The alarm was raised when Boyne entered his branch office during the weekend and stole £1,025…
Read More » -
Latest property news
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…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Agent warns over “increasingly common” Facebook scam
Martin & Co has warned of an “increasingly common” Facebook scam after two women in Devon were duped out of £1,200 by sophisticated online fraudsters. National Fraud Reporting Centre police are now looking in to the case after Jenny and Cheryl Foster-Mitchell lost the money after being lured into paying a deposit and fees for a rental property in Plymouth (pictured, right). The fake landlord had stolen images and copy from Rightmove and used the material to create a fake listing on Facebook for the property, and then persuaded the two women to part with £600 as a deposit and £600 as a month’s rent in advance, which they paid they bank transfer. But Jenny and Cheryl did not get to see inside the property in person and instead were told the keys weren’t available. As an alternative, they were told to visit the property and look through the windows. The landlord then asked the two women for references and copies of their driving licences. Perfect home After they told the fake landlord that it was their “perfect” home because pets were allowed, they were then asked for a further £400 as a ‘maintenance fee’ but became suspicious the payments…
Read More » -
Charity
Martin & Co Supports St Peter’s School in St Albans
Martin & Co, St Albans was proud to be the headline sponsor for the St Peter’s School PSA Black Tie Gala Dinner and Auction, held at Sopwell House. The event raised £10,000!
Read More » -
Latest property news
What retirement? Michael Stoop rejoins Winkworth after 25 years
Veteran industry franchising heavyweight Michael Stoop (pictured, below) has re-joined Winkworth as a consultant 25 years after he left the company. Michael started at Winkworth in 1976 but just five years later was the first person to open a franchised Winkworth office, at a branch in Parsons Green, central London. He then sold it on to a new Winkworth franchisee in 1988, having earlier been made Managing Director of the company. Four years later in 1992 he left Winkworth to join Xperience, the franchising division of Legal & General, where he worked for 22 years before joining Martin & Co as Group Managing Director in 2014, after it bought Xperience for £6 million and then rebranded as The Property Franchise Group. This new group company then brought together Martin & Co as well as the brands Michael brought with him including Ellis & Co, CJ Hole, Parkers and Whitegates, under one umbrella. Last year The Property Franchise Group added online-only agency Ewemove to its portfolio in a deal worth £15m. But in August last year Michael retired from The Property Franchise Group and set up Michael Stoop Property Services with a member of his family, which at Companies House is…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Martin & Co franchisees to be offered new ZPG deal
Martin & Co parent company The Property Franchise Group (TPFG), which also owns five other agency brands with nearly 400 branches across the UK, has signed up to a long-term deal with ZPG that will be available to all its franchisees. TPFG is the UK’s biggest estate agent franchise operation in the UK and ZPG says the deal will see a ‘large number’ of TPFG’s brands returning to its online platforms. Martin & Co has also separately signed up to use Jupix, the ZPG-owned property software suite, for a further three years. TPFG will now offer the negotiated listings deal to all its existing members, but will be of interest most to those who have not signed up with ZPG yet, or who thinking about leaving OnTheMarket.com. This was the case for the Exeter branch of Martin & Co whose MD Christopher Perring (pictured, left) says he signed up to ZPG after leaving OnTheMarket following “poor lead levels and a lack of external marketing of OnTheMarket,” he says. Of the TPFG brands, Martin & Co currently has 109 out of 175 of its franchisee branches listed on Zoopla while CJ Hole has three out of 21, Ellis & Co 14 out…
Read More » -
Features
Does your staff training pack a punch?
Competition, the threat of tighter industry regulation and the emergence of online-only agents mean that training is now increasingly a frontline activity, reports Nigel Lewis.
Read More »
