Property Movers & Shakers January 2024

1 February 2024

Estate Agencies

Hamptons has significantly bolstered its PCL offering with a raft of new appointments: Craig Tonkin moves from Druce to become Regional Sales Director for Central London (he previously held senior roles at Foxtons, Marsh & Parsons & Dexters); Mark Cullen (a former Regional Director at Foxtons) is now leading sales in Kensington; Mark Breffit (formerly Knight Frank & Foxtons) is Head of Sales in Sloane Square, while Hamptons’ Islington branch boss Grant Bates has stepped up to lead the Private Office division in London. Read more.

Notting Hill-based Domus Nova has brought in former Foxtons and Beauchamp Estates super-agent Stuart Bennett to head up a new division catering specifically for HNW clients. Bennett is now in charge of Domus Private Clients, which serves up “exclusive opportunities” in Prime Central London and Ibiza, along with “personalised advice on investments and managing their portfolios”. Read more.

Longstanding Chelsea estate agency Maskells has expanded its operations into Marylebone and the West End. Mitchell Murphy, formerly of Knight Frank and Druce, is heading up the new team. Read more.

Leaders Romans Group started the year with the acquisition of a trio of estate agency business covering London, Surrey, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire: Stirling Ackroyd in prime London; Alexander & Co in the Home Counties, and Peter Ball in Gloucestershire. LRG says all three companies will continue to operate under their current brand identities, but there will be some senior level personnel changes: Nick Dunning, CEO at Stirling Ackroyd and George Thomas, CEO at Alexander & Co, will leave their respective businesses after a short transition period. All remaining team members will transfer to LRG. Read more.

Listed estate agency companies The Property Franchise Group and Belvoir Group have agreed terms for an all-share merger, creating a massive network of more than 930 franchised offices. TPFG’s estate agency brands include Martin & Co, Hunters, Ellis & Co, CJ Hole, Parkers, Whitegates and Ewemove. Belvoir Group has Belvoir, Mr and Mrs Clarke, Newton Fallowell, Northwood, Nicholas Humphreys and Mortgage Advice Bureau. The combined top-table management team is likely to include Gareth Samples (TPFG Chief Executive Officer), David Raggett (TPFG Chief Financial Officer) and Michelle Brook (Belvoir executive director), with Paul Latham (TPFG Chair) as the Combined Group’s Chair. Read more.

Savills has recruited well-known London estate agent Cory Askew to helm a new sales team covering the South West London Parks region. Askew previously spent 19 years with Chestertons, working in both sales and lettings in prime London and rising to become Head of Sales. He then did a brief spell in charge of boutique agency Druce last year, and has now moved to Savills. Read more.

Savills has also announced “ambitious expansion plans” for its residential business in the Middle East, recruiting Andrew Cummings to lead the charge. Cummings spent the last two years as Knight Frank’s Head of Prime Residential in Dubai, having previously co-founded LuxuryProperty.com. Savills expects to build a 100-strong resi team in the region by the end of this year. Read more.

Savills has also bolstered its regional teams in the UK. Christine Penny has joined the recently-relocated flagship Bath office as a residential consultant, to cover prime property in the city as well as surrounding villages and countryside. The former buying agent was previously Director at Sotheby’s International Realty in Bath. Read more.

And in Norfolk, Natalie Howlett-Clarke has stepped up to become head of the Savills Norwich office. She joined the agency in 2005, and takes over from, who will continue in his role within the rural management division. Read more.

UK Sotheby’s International Realty kicked off 2024 with some more high-profile hires. Katya Zenkovich and Tereza Kandelaki have both made the move to the luxury agency. Zenkovich was formerly a Partner at Knight Frank Private Office; Kandelaki spent the last 11 years at Savills, where she was Associate Director in the London Head Office. Read more.

Top-end London estate agent Daniel Taylor has joined the self-employed ranks at brokerage brand Harding Green. Taylor was Head of Office at Savills in Notting Hill, having previously spent almost a decade with Chestertons, as Director and Head of Residential Sales in Kensington and Holland Park. At Harding Green, he will concentrate on buying and selling £2mn+ homes across Kensington & Chelsea, with plans to launch a dedicated Prime Central London team in the near future. Read more.

London-headquartered luxury estate agency Beauchamp Estates has opened two new offices in the South of France, with a view to “capitalising on the Post-Pandemic return of international buyers to the French Riviera.” The new outposts are in luxury resort hotspots Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and Mougins, adding to existing offices in Cannes and St Tropez, which opened in 2007 and 2020 respectively. Adrien Willing-Lamy, Managing Director of Beauchamp Estates (France), is leading both offices. Read more.

Grenville Turner has handed over the reins at Yopa, four years after being appointed Chairman of the online estate agency. The former MD of Countrywide Plc will instead become a “strategic advisor” to the business. Goldman Sachs and McKinsey alumnus Manuel Lopo de Carvalho steps up to replace Turner as Chairman. He set up DMGT’s investment division, DMG Ventures, and has been involved in Yopa since DMGT first invested back in 2016. Read more.

Buying Agencies

West country-born buying agency Recoco Property Search has hired the former Director of Strutt & Parker’s Country House department, Andrew Cronan, to cover the area around Bath, including Somerset, Wiltshire and the Cotswolds. He had been with Strutts since 2017, having previously led the Savills team in Bath. Read more.

Boutique buying and selling agency Harwood Advisory has added Prime Central London specialist Ollie Blakelock to its line-up. Blakelock has spent over two decades working in the capital’s prime property market, at agencies including Russell Simpson, Strutt & Parker, Farleys and Maskells. He has now taken on a senior consultant role at Harwood, which was founded in 2020 by ex-Knight Frank partner Sami Robertson. Read more.

Belgravia-based Quintessentially Estates has opened a new international outpost Dubai, opening a base in the Barsha Heights neighbourhood. Read more.

Design

Interior design studio Elicyon has installed Tess Cavendish as Client Relationships Director. She spent most of the last decade at Strutt & Parker, rising from PCL negotiator to Associate Director in the London Residential Development & Investment Consultancy. At the same time, Rebecca Lam has been promoted to Associate Director, having been with Elicyon since 2017. Read more.

Architecture practice Studio PDP has hired a new Head of Sustainability. Federica Romeo Beattie has moved from specialist firm Henriksen Studio, where she was Senior Passive House Designer, having previously worked at Squire and Partners and PRP LLP. Read more.

Legal and Finance

London law firm Howard Kennedy has recruited a new Partner to its Residential Conveyancing team, bringing in Jonathan Achampong to handle prime and super-prime property purchases, sales and development projects. He has moved from Wedlake Bell, where he was a Residential Conveyancing partner, to become HK’s Head of Residential Conveyancing. Read more.

Kingsley Napsley has appointed Sophie Voelcker as a partner in its private client legal team. She joins from private client boutique New Quadrant Partners, where she has been a partner since 2017. Read more.

Insurance and finance specialist J3 Advisory has added former Knight Frank partner Peter MacAllan to its top team. After stints at Barclays and Savills Private Finance, MacAllan spent over ten years at Knight Frank, leading the agency’s Structured Development Finance team in London. He is now heading J3’s debt advisory team. Read more.

Paul Munford’s property finance firm, Century Capital, has brought in James Wheeler as Chief Operating Officer. Wheeler has strong form in IT, tech and the financial services sector, having previously held senior roles at Enra Specialist Finance (Chief Information Officer), Pepper (Head of Business Systems), and Landbay (consultant). Read more.

Developers and Planning

Luxury property developer Finchatton has recruited Anthony Kazan as its new Chief Operating Officer. Kazan spent the last 12 years at Knight Frank, rising to Head of Central London Land and Development; he was previously Head of Business Development at CBL UK and Real Estate Development Manager at Bouygues Construction. Read more.

Battersea Power Station’s Chief Executive, Simon Murphy, is moving on after six years in charge of the gigantic London redevelopment scheme. Murphy joined the Battersea Power Station Development Company as Chief Financial Office in 2012, then stepped up to the top job in April 2018, taking over from Rob Tincknell. He is due to formally step down in March. Read more.

Auriens Group, a specialist developer of luxury retirement homes, has installed a new boss, naming Julie Fawcett as Chief Executive Officer. Her previous roles have included CEO of sustainably-minded homewares brand Nkuku; Chair of the South Downs National Park Trust; CEO of QBIC Hotels, and a Director of housing association Peabody. Read more.

Proptech firm Built-ID, which operates community engagement platform Give My View, has been acquired by LandTech in a “groundbreaking collaboration” for the businesses. Built-ID was set up in 2015 by entrepreneur Savannah de Savary. Plannihg-focused LandTech has been running since 2010, and claims to be Britain’s fastest-growing proptech firm. Following a handover period, de Savary will “embark on new endeavours and adventures”. Read more.