Property Movers & Shakers April 2024

10 May 2024

Estate Agencies

Savills has expanded its sales division in North London. Gabriella Palmano has joined the Primrose Hill team from Foxtons, where she focused on the markets of Soho, Covent Garden, Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia as part of the West End sales department. Read here.

Savills has also hired a new Director for its rapidly-growing Global Residential business. Victoria Garrett has moved from Knight Frank, where she worked in various roles since 2010 – most recently as Head of Residential across the Asia-Pacific region. Now back in London, she is tasked with supporting the expansion of Savills’ residential business throughout EMEA and Asia Pacific. Read here.

Knight Frank is adding another outpost and new senior names to its rapidly-expanding rural business. The latest round of Partner-level hires includes Anna Collins and Patrick Beddows, to lead a Midlands offering in Melton Mowbray, and Ali Fell to run the division in Kent. A seventh new rural office is scheduled to open later this year, in Cheshire. Read here.

Anna Isajenkowa has moved from Savills to UK Sotheby’s International Realty, becoming Sales Director in the Knightsbridge office. Read here.

Strutt & Parker has made another senior appointment to its sales operation in London, bringing George Jackson-Stops back into the company as a Director and head of Fulham Sales. Jackson-Stops – great-grandson of the founder of the estate agency that shares his name – was a Senior Sales Negotiator for Strutts in Fulham before setting up his own sales and buying agency in 2019, under The London Broker network. He started his career with Winkworth (Brook Green) then Cluttons (Clapham & Battersea). Read here.

Strutt & Parker has also installed a new Director and Head of Residential Sales in its Gerrards Cross office. Kraig Butler has moved to the BNP Paribas-owned estate agency after 24 years with Hamptons (where he headed-up offices in Maidenhead, Rickmansworth and Amersham). Read here.

Following its recent rebrand of Burns & Webber, Curchods has brought in Jordan Sturgess as “Prime Partner”, to oversee an expansion of the estate agency’s high-value sales and lettings proposition into South West Surrey. Sturgess was previously Head of Super-Prime Country Houses at Winkworth, working from the Sunningdale office. Read here.

Winkworth has opened a new office in Salisbury. Longstanding franchisees Lisa and Simon Jacobs have set up the new base after acquiring the franchise from Mathew Hallett, who has retired. Jack Chitty, the Jacobs’ nephew, will be leading the enhanced operation on Castle Street. Read here. 

Six-year-old broker platform Moveli has attracted a spree of experienced agents to its self-employed model this year, including three in the last month. Former Featherstone Leigh director Fraser Allen has joined the “upmarket” firm in Richmond. Read here.

Sally Jane Hobson has joined Moveli in Gerrards Cross, having spent the last 15 years working for Hamptons and Knight Frank. Read here.

And former Hamptons director Philip Knight has made the move to Moveli to cover the Surrey area, after 18 years with Hamptons in Caterham. Read here.

Cezary Pyda has joined the self-employed ranks Harding Green, moving to the broker-model firm after four years with Hamptons in Sloane Square and Knightsbridge. Before that, he spent time with Chestertons in Kensington (where he worked alongside Harding Green founder Nick Carter), and Draker in Chelsea. Read here.

Dominic Barry has also signed to Harding Green, moving from Savills where he ran the Brook Green & Shepherds Bush sales team. He previously worked at Foxtons, Winkworth and Marsh & Parsons. Barry is now covering the East Dulwich patch in SE London. Read here.

Malcolm Ornstein, who formerly led sales at Martin & Wright (now Dexters), has signed up to Vita Properties’s new self-employed broker platform. Operating under the brand name Vita Properties X Rui Investments, he will be covering prime markets across NW London, including West Hampstead and South Hampstead. Read here.

House Partnership has brought in James Clarke to boost its boost its lettings operation in Surrey. He has moved from Barnes International, where he was Head of Lettings. He previously worked for Foxtons, Bective Leslie Marsh, Hamptons International, and Farrar & Co, in Prime Central London. Clarke is now a Regional Partner at House Partnership, based in Elmbridge. Read here.

eXp Realty has named a new Chief Executive Officer, promoting Chief Strategy Officer Leo Pareja to the top job, based in Miami. He takes over from Glenn Sanford, who will now “fully dedicate his efforts to his position as Founder, Chairman, and CEO of eXp World Holdings.” Read here.

 

Buying Agencies

Property Vision has recruited Eddie Ruggles-Brise to advise clients in the Home Counties. He has moved from JMChase Property Search, where he spent the last three years as a buying agent based in the Chilterns. He started his career in Prime Central London with Cluttons then nine years with Knight Frank. Read here.

Property consultancy Kingdom International has recruited a heavyweight name to lead its sales and marketing. Roshan Wial has moved from CBRE, where he spent seven years including four as Head of Middle East Sales & Marketing and, since last January, as Head of the London Middle East team. He previously worked as a broker at Keller Williams. Kingdom International was set up in 2018 by London-based Saudi entrepreneur Dr. Raihan Jumah and Obaida Al-Ghazawi, pitching itself as “the first Arabic estate agency in London to advocate for buyers rather than sellers”. The firm has offices in London, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Read here.

 

Design and Planning

London-based interior design firm 1508 is expanding its US operations, recruiting Scott Miller to lead its teams in New York, Miami & Los Angeles. Miller has joined from AvroKO, where he held the position of Global Director of Development; he was previously Brand Director at Hollwich Kushner. Read here.

Planning and development consultancy Lichfields has appointed Jonathan Wallace as its new chairperson. Wallace, a Senior Director who previously led the Newcastle office, takes the reins from Justin Gartland, who held the chair position for the last ten years – steering the business through “significant expansion” including the opening of four new offices. Gartland will now continue in his fee-earning role in the Leeds outpost. Read here.

 

Developers

London-based development and investment firm Martin’s Properties has brought in a new Senior Development Manager, as the company looks to invest £35mn and boost building activity. Ricqesh Parmar has moved from cross-sector property developer Frontier Estates, having previously spent time as a Senior Development Surveyor with JLL, handling site acquisitions and disposals across London and the South East. Read here.

Urban regeneration specialist Related Argent - the firm behind the reinvention of King’s Cross in London - has signed up former Cushman & Wakefield CEO John Forrester as a strategic advisor. Read here.