23 August 2024
London’s oldest estate agency, Chestertons, has continued its expansion drive with another agency acquisition - picking up boutique firm James Pendleton, which has been operating in South London since 2003. James Pendleton’s Wandsworth, Battersea and Clapham branches are to be “absorbed” into the Chestertons network. Read here. Knight Frank has created a new Chief Operating Officer role to “sit at the centre” of its three estate agency sub-divisions in the UK. Andrew Groocock - who has been with the firm for 14 years - has taken on the high-level position, which will see him work across KF’s London sales, Country sales and Lettings divisions. Read here. Knight Frank has recruited Beauchamp Estates’ Francesca Fox to lead its super-prime lettings division in north London. Fox spent six years as a lettings manager with Beauchamp, and now steps into a newly-created role covering the top-end of the north London rental market for Knight Frank, focusing on St John’s Wood, Hampstead, and Belsize Park. Read here. Well-known deal-maker Declan Selbo has taken the reins of Knight Frank’s flagship sales operation in St John’s Wood. Selbo has been with the team for nearly a decade, rising from negotiator to Partner level, and now Head of Sales. Read here. Also at Knight Frank, Sebastian Toy has been installed as head of sales at the Islington & King’s Cross office. He fills the shoes of Chelsea Whelan, who has been promoted to Regional Partner. Read here. Former Savills star Trevor Kearney has launched a new US-style brokerage, called The Private Office: Real Estate. Kearney left his director-level role at Savills at the beginning of the year, having spent two decades in the super-prime property arena. His new venture has launched with a team of nine based in Surrey, servicing sellers and buyers of the UK’s “most desirable properties”; there will also be a dedicated Sport & Entertainment arm, and a lifestyle management offering. Read here. High-flying NW London specialist Orly Lehmann has become the latest well-known name to join DDRE Global, the luxury property brokerage set up by Daniel Daggers in 2020. Lehmann spent the last eight years at Knight Frank, becoming one of the youngest people to be made Head of Office at the agency. She previously spent six years at Foxtons (and was the firm’s highest-billing negotiator in two of those). Read here. Boutique London estate agency Wilfords has hired a new head of sales in its Kensington branch. Billy Harvey has moved from Lurot Brand, where he was latterly heading up the sales team in South Kensington. Read here. High-end real estate firm London House has made a series of fresh appointments. Former actor Siân-Louise Tangney joins as an adviser, bringing a significant social media following as well as experimental gained from senior roles with Knight Frank and Douglas & Gordon. Read here. London House has also added four other new faces: Mumzad Soobhany has moved from Knight Frank, where he ran the Hampstead lettings department, to become an advisor in LH’s super-prime team. Silvina Paz, William Fattall and Mortimer Whelan have also joined the agency, which was co-founded in 2021 by Alex Bourne and Richard Douglas. Read here. Connells Group, which is part of the Skipton Group and owns estate agency brands including Hamptons and John D Wood & Co., has appointed a new CEO. Helen Charlesworth is due to take the reins at the end of September, subject to regulatory approval. She will take over from Interim Group CEO Richard Twigg, who stepped into the shoes of David Livesey, who retired last year. Charlesworth was until recently Managing Director of Britain’s biggest pub company, Stonegate Group (which operates Be At One, Slug and Lettuce, Walkabout and others). Read here. Hamptons has brought in a new Regional Lettings Director, to steer the estate agency’s 14 branches across the Southern & Southeast regions. Graeme Young has moved from Marsh & Parsons, where he spent 17 years rising from branch management up to Lettings Director. He takes over from Karen Standing, who moves within Hamptons to become Head of Build to Rent & Corporate PRS. Read here. Hamptons has also promoted Tom Hawkins to Head of Residential Development. Hawkins has been with the firm for a total of 14 years, working his way up from Sales Negotiator to Director level before leaving to join Knight Frank. He spent five years with KF in the Middle East & North Africa region, before returning to Hamptons in 2021 to lead the London Residential Development team. Now in charge of the whole Residential Development division, he’s tasked with leading the team into “a new era of success.” Read here. Strutt & Parker has made Christian Swaab a permanent fixture in its new homes line-up. Swaab spent the last six months as a consultant for the business, but has now been named Head of South West New Homes. He was previously Knight Frank’s Head of New Homes in Devon & Cornwall, and before that worked for Savills for eight years, as Head of the Country Department in Cheltenham. Read here. Franchised estate agency Winkworth has opened its first outpost in Warwickshire, setting up an office in the centre of Royal Leamington Spa. The brand’s West Midlands expansion comes at the hands of new franchisee Nick Martiny Roberts, who built his career as a Winkworth employee in London. Read here. Winkworth agents Shilpa and Ajay Bathija have extended their presence in North London, acquiring the network’s Hendon office franchise. The duo took over the Kingsbury franchise seven years ago, and now have picked up a new territory from franchisee Howard Greenfield, who will continue to run the Winkworth Golders Green and Finchley offices. Read here. Top-end Surrey and South West London estate agency Curchods has opened a new dedicated lettings office in Esher. Shoeni Oates is in charge of the new outpost, having moved from Savills’ Esher branch. She previously spent ten years with John D Wood & Co., rising to Associate Director level. Read here. Rapidly-expanding estate agency group Lomond has added another company in the South of England to its roster, buying the estate agency and lettings arms of Charters Estate Agents Ltd. Charters operates nine branches along the length of the M3, covering a patch from Southampton to Farnham. It has a portfolio of around 2,800 properties under management. Charters’ current owner, Rob Mott, will stay with the business “in a senior capacity”. Read here. Up-market property brokerage Moveli continues to expand, adding Kim Turner to its roster of well-known prime London agents. Turner has moved from rival brokerage Agent&Homes, having previously held senior roles at Foxtons and Bective Leslie Marsh. Read here. Also moving to Moveli is Jason Scott, who was a top-performing agent with the eXp platform. He previously worked at KFH and Barnard Marcus. Read here. Jeremy Campbell Harris has joined West Sussex buying agency Property Acquisitions to build its presence across Hampshire and Surrey. He spent the last six years with Recoco Property Search, and was previously head of Humberts’ Country House department. Read here. Property search and management firm Eccord has added two new faces to its property management team. Steve Wilson joins as Senior Property Manager , having previously been Head of Property Management at Anthony Pepe. James Markham has come on board as a Property Manager. Read here. The UK arm of tech-led American real estate broker platform eXp has revealed its latest plan to shift estate agency business models – launching a “buyer representation programme” to encourage its brokers to represent both buyers and sellers. Estate agency trainer Richard Rawlings is spearheading the new programme. He was a Winkworth franchisee in SW London in the 1980s before moving into estate agency marketing, and has been working as an estate agent trainer – focusing on marketing and increasing revenue streams – since 2020. Read here. Lord Richard Harrington has been appointed to the board of residential property developer Regal, as non-exec chair. The former Conservative MP ran a development business before entering politics, and is now helping Regal with a forthcoming expansion drive. Read here. The UK Green Building Council has installed a new Chair of its Board of Trustees. Judith Everett steps up to the role, alongside her main position as Executive Director of Purpose, Sustainability & Stakeholder at The Crown Estate. Read here. Estate Agencies
Buying Agencies
Developers
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