Property Movers & Shakers February 2023

15 February 2023

 

Estate Agencies

Dexters has bought 167-year-old rival Marsh & Parsons from LSL Property Services Plc for £29mn in cash. The deal means Dexters Group is the capital’s biggest estate agency network by some margin, with 150 offices (including Wetherell in Mayfair) and 2,000 people – representing over 37,000 landlords and handling some £5bn of property sales each year. Read more

Cliff Gardiner has been named as the new head of sales at Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in London. Gardiner has been running his own specialist property consultancy for the last decade, having previously run the London team at Knight Frank’s buying agency arm, The Buying Solution (until 2012). Read more

Savills has launched a new outpost in Prime Central London, creating a dedicated residential lettings office to cover the Hyde Park and Bayswater patch. Guy Spencer is in charge, having joined the firm in September 2022 to set up the new team. He’s spent the last 12 years with Knight Frank, including heading-up the Hyde Park and Queen’s Park lettings operations. Read more

Savills has brought in a new boss for its Bishop’s Stortford operation, recruiting former Prime Central London agent Felicity Walker as head of office and residential sales in the Hertfordshire town. Walker joins as a Director, having spent the last 20 years in PCL – including a long stint with Foxtons, where she rose to become South Kensington branch manager. She then did a spell at Butler & Stag in Essex, before this move to Savills. Read more

Savills has also appointed a new office head in Chelmsford, Essex. Resi development sales director Alex Leigh takes the reins from Stephen White, who has stepped down from the role after ten years. Read more

Strutt & Parker has bolstered its Prime Central London team, hiring a new Director to cover the Mayfair and Marylebone patch. Charles Medina has been with Savills for the last nine years, having started his career in the Windsor office. He’s been based in Mayfair & St. James’s since 2017, heading up the Savills office’s core team in the sale of residential assets across Mayfair and St. James’s, Soho, Covent Garden, and the Hyde Park Estate in Bayswater. Read more

Strutt & Parker has also added to its London-based National Country House Department, moving Senior Director Giles Lawton, previously head of the agency’s Oxford office, to the now twelve-strong division to cover the wider Cotswolds area. Read more

Chestertons has recruited Gary Howorth as Battersea Sales Director. He joins from Douglas & Gordon, where he looked after the South London patch as an area director. Read more

Chestertons has also bolstered its Canary Wharf team with a senior hire from Douglas & Gordon. Warren McCann is now Sales Director for Chestertons’ Canary Wharf & Docklands branch. He joined Douglas & Gordon in 2016, taking on the role of Area Director for Central London, in charge of a total of seven offices. Read more

And 31-branch Chestertons has become the first London-based agency to join the Forbes Global Properties luxury real estate network, as it looks to leverage the media brand's global audience of 'more than 100 million’. Read more

Christie’s International Real Estate has signed up Carter Jonas, one of the UK’s oldest and best-known property firms, as its exclusive UK affiliate. Read more 

Knight Frank has opened a new outpost in Monaco, partnering with local firm Balkin Estates to provide residential property advice to super-rich Monagesque clients and house hunters in the Principality. Read more

Knight Frank has added to its UK network with a new operation in Cheshire. The Wilmslow branch is run by Andrew Fisher (previously head of KF’s Battersea and Riverside office), with Peter Edwards and Freddy Dalrymple-Hamilton from the agency’s Country Department. Read more

Hamptons has added two new faces to its Residential Development Consultancy team. Holly Stock joins as Head of Development Consultancy for London, and Corinne Garside is the new Head of Development Consultancy, Greater London & Country, with a remit to “spearhead a growth drive” for the division. Read more

JLL has appointed a new Head of Greater London Residential Development to spearhead a growth drive for the division. Peter Gibney, who joined the agency in 2010, has stepped up to lead the team having worked across valuation, development consultancy, sales & marketing. Read more

John D Wood has recruited a new Head of New Homes, bringing in John East to lead the Land & New Homes department. He was formerly head of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward’s new homes division, before setting up a development consultancy called The Land and New Homes Expert Ltd. Read more

Carter Jonas has appointed a new leader for its Winchester office. Sophie Richardson has joined as Partner and Head of Residential Sales. She moves from the Savills sales team in Petworth, and also previously worked at John D. Wood & Co. Read more

CBRE’s UK Residential arm has created a new role in the London-based International Sales and Marketing team – promoting Roshan Wial to become “Head of London Middle East team”. Read more

Scottish estate agency Rettie & Co has recruited a new Director of New Homes, bringing in Strutt & Parker and Savills alumna Sarah Curtis. Read more

Three months after becoming an independent estate agency, former Knight Frank outpost North Residential has opened a second branch in Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire. Harlan Pollitt and Daniel Rigg – directors of Knight Frank’s well-established Harrogate-based residential estate agency – went their own way in September, securing independent ownership for and rebranding the business. They have now opened a second branch in the popular market town of Pocklington. Scott Holley has been appointed to lead the team, having previously held senior roles with Galbraith and Savills. Read more

 

Buying Agencies

Aykroyd & Co has recruited a former Knight Frank and Savills agent as a Director, to expand the buying agency’s reach into prime South West London. Abi Frankish previously spent over 13 years with Savills – becoming a resi sales manager in Notting Hill and Kensington, then an Associate Director covering SW London. Read more

Knight Frank’s buying agency arm, The Buying Solution, has added a new Partner to its team, recruiting Theo James-Wright to cover the southern Home Counties. He moves from Savills, where he specialised in selling £5mn+ country houses across West Sussex, Surrey and East Hampshire, from the firm’s London Country Department. Before Savills, James-Wright was a buying agent in London with Crown Mayfair, having worked at Carter Jonas in Barnes, and starting his property career at KFH. Read more

Well-known estate agent Jason Corbett has launched a property buying firm; Rowallan Buying Agents covers SW London and the Home Counties. Corbett was previously a director at UK Sotheby’s International Realty, and a partner at Carter Jonas. Read more

 

Legal & Planning

Law firm Burges Salmon has named a new leader for its Private Wealth Sector; private client partner Suzanna Harvey steps up to the role with immediate effect. Read more

Planning and development consultancy Turley has recruited Deloitte’s Mark Underwood to head up its London office. The firm also recently appointed Alex Christopher as Head of Planning, London. Read more

Planning consultancy Lichfields has made a batch of promotions, including two new Planning Directors in Manchester and new Associates Directors in London, Leeds and Cardiff. Read more

 

Industry Bodies & Marketing

The RICS is looking to hire a new permanent CEO, after last year's search for a Director-General failed to find a perfect candidate. Read more

Property portal OnTheMarket Plc has recruited a new Chief Financial Officer; Tom Carter will move from AIM-listed beauty brand business Brand Architekts Group to take over from Clive Beattie, who announced a move to nurtur.group last year. Read more

Off-market property sales platform Invisible Homes has recruited a Head of Sales to promote the online service to estate agents. Chris Manderson was previously Head of Sales at estate agency comparison website GetAgent, and before that spent time with Foxtons (starting off in Islington before launching and managing the Hackney branch). Read more

Countryside charity CPRE has appointed Roger Mortlock as its new CEO, to take over from Crispin Truman OBE in May. Read more

 

Design & Construction

Redbook, the top-end property projects/design/construction consultancy founded by former Country Life editor Sandy Mitchell, has added another well-known figure to its senior team. Poppy Chenevix-Trench is the new Head of Property. She has spent the last ten years at Savills, most recently as Head of Communications for The Private Office. She previously spent two years as an Associate Director in the Savills super-prime Residential Development team. Read more

Luxury interior design studio A.London, part of the Accouter Group of Companies, has appointed Rachel Clark as associate director. Clark joined the group in 2021, following nearly five years at high-end Surrey-based interiors firm Alexander James. Read more

Cost and construction consultancy RLF (Robinson Low Francis, founded back in 1885) has rebranded under its parent company’s banner, having been acquired by American project consultancy MGAC (Mark G Anderson Consultants) at the end of 2021. Read more