Property Movers & Shakers May 2024

7 June 2024

Estate Agencies

Fresh from a merger with Belvoir Group, The Property Franchise Group has bought estate agency brands Fine & Country and the Guild of Property Property Professionals from Nurtur Group, for around £20mn. Read here.

Knight Frank has announced a pair of top-end promotions in London, naming Stuart Bailey as Head of Super Prime Sales, and Charles Olver as Head of Prime Sales. Read here.

Knightsbridge-based property agency Nicolas Van Patrick has expanded into the Chelsea market via a new acquisition, picking up 40-year-old firm HLR. HLR was set up by Ginny Hicks, originally as a relocation agency. NVP was founded by Nicolas Pejacsevich, Patrick Alvarado and Dutch businessman John Fentener van Vlissingen in 2014. Read here.

UK Sotheby’s International Realty has created a Family Office division, to service global multi-millionaires and billionaires. It provides a single point of contact for those buying or selling mansions, villas and penthouses and their contents - including fine art, jewellery and automotive collections. Financial services and staffing solutions are also on the menu. London-based Marcus O’Brien is leading the team from London. The new UK SIR offering is not associated with Sotheby’s auction house, RM Sotheby’s or Sotheby’s Financial Services. Read here.

UK SIR has also added Minnie Stainrod and Olivia McSweeney as lettings directors in Prime Central London. Stainrod was at Knight Frank in Kensington and Notting Hill. McSweeney set up UK SIR’s lettings division back in 2015, before moving to Rokstone -  which has now merged with United Kingdom’s Sotheby’s International Realty. She has also worked for Hamptons and property developer Northacre. Read here.

Strutt & Parker has boosted its operations in the Home Counties. Emma Creffield (née Smith) has joined the agency as Senior Associate Director in its Ascot & Sunningdale office (rejoining S&P after four years with Savills), while Oliver Truelove has taken up an Associate Director role at the Guildford & Horsham branch (following spells with London agencies Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward and Goldschmidt and Howland). Read here.

Winkworth franchisee Ian Fraser has opened his fifth office in London, launching a branch in Stoke Newington. Fraser already runs the Highbury, Islington, Hackney, and Shoreditch offices. Associate Director Hamish Allan oversees all of Fraser’s branches, having joined Winkworth in 2009 as a negotiator. Tom Street, who has been with the firm since 2017, is running the lettings side of the business in Stoke Newington. Read here.

An established Winkworth franchisee has also opened another outpost in the West Country. Chris Baker has taken over Weekes, an independent estate agent in St Leonard’s in Exeter, following the retirement of the owner Angus Donald. Baker already runs Winkworth offices in Southernhay in Exeter city centre, in Tiverton (opened in 2021) and in Crediton (2022). Read here.

JLL has launched a new base in Kew Bridge, covering West London areas Kew, Chiswick, Brentford and Acton from premises in EcoWorld’s Verdo development. Sebastian Born, who has been with the firm for over six years, is heading up the sales and lettings division; also on the team is sales and lettings consultant Poppy Brown, who joined two years ago. Read here.

Four-year-old specialist estate agency The Country House Department has recruited two new Directors to bolster its presence across Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire. Stuart Miles and Christopher Bailey have signed up as Regional Directors, from Hamptons and Knight Frank respectively. Read here.

Upper-end property brokerage Moveli has added another senior name to its teamsheet. Stephen Donnelly previously worked extensively with Hamptons, was Land & New Homes Director at Countrywide, and Consultant Land Director for Spicer Haart. Now operating under the Moveli banner, Donnelly covers London and the Homes Counties from a base in Tunbridge Wells. Read here.

London estate agency Johns&Co has named Edith Kwok as Managing Partner of its Hong Kong office, as the firm pursues “strategic expansion” in Asia. Kwok has moved from London-listed housebuilder Berkeley Group, where she was Head of Business Development in Hong Kong. Read here.

Savills has added two new faces to its Residential & Country Agency department in Ireland: Rose Lyle joins as Associate Director, and Cian Pearse as Sales Negotiator. Read here.

 

Buying Agencies

Knight Frank’s buying agency division, The Buying Solution, has named a new Head – promoting Will Watson to lead the business as former boss Jonathan Bramwell launches his own venture. Watson joined The Buying Solution as a Partner four years ago, moving from rival buying agency Middleton Advisors to become Head of the London at TBS in 2019. Former chief Bramwell spent 13 years at TBS, including seven years as Head. He has now set up Bramwell Prime Property Search, providing search and acquisition services for clients looking for prime country houses or estates west of London. Harry Gladwin has taken over the running of TBS’s operation in the Cotswolds, reporting to Watson. Read here.

A familiar face has returned to independent buying agency Heaton & Partners, taking on a newly-created senior role with the 11-year-old business. Jack Frost was one of the first partners recruited by former Property Vision director Ed Heaton, joining as a partner in 2013 and spending the next four years managing searches in the Cotswold area. The former army Major moved into the HNW insurance industry in 2017, working first with NFU Mutual as a private client specialist, then Weatherbys Hamilton, where he managed insurance matters for some of the largest estates in central and southern England. He’s now back in property, returning to Heaton & Partners as Chief Operating Officer. Read here.

Heaton & Partners has also brought in Amy Woods from Knight Frank to handle property searches in Bristol and Bath, along with Dorset, Somerset and Devon. Woods previously spent eight years as a partner in Knight Frank’s international team, specialising in the Italian market. She started her career at Aylesford International, working on international sales in locations ranging from Barbados and Switzerland to France and Spain. She now lives on the Dorset/Somerset border. Read here.

 

Legal & Finance

City law firm Druces has installed a new Head of Residential Property, promoting Parveen Abbas to the role. Abbas joined the 257-year-old practice last year, having previously been a Partner at South West London law firms TWM Solicitors and at Perry Hay & Co. Read here.

Specialist real estate finance firm Arc & Co has expanded its West End-based advisory team. Andrey Redman has joined the company as a director, following stints at Wimmer Family Office, Knight Frank and PwC. Read here.

 

Developers & Consultancies

Listed property developer Weston Group has installed Peter Gore as its new Chief Executive Officer. Gore joined the Plc in 2021 as Group Operations Director for Weston Homes, having previously been Managing Director at Taylor Wimpey London. He’s now stepped up to run the whole group, working closely with company founder and Chairman Bob Weston. Read here.

JTRE London - the property developer behind Triptych Bankside - has hired former Knight Frank partner James Keegan as Head of Acquisitions. Keegan spent over 15 years at Knight Frank, overseeing the Central London Development team, before co-founding sustainable development company AutumnHill. JTRE London described his appointment as a “real coup”. Read here.

Planning and development consultancy Lichfields has hired a brace of new talent to its London office: Anna Snow has joined as a Planning Director (moving from Iceni Projects); Sakhi Sumaria as Associate Director (moving from Arup). Read here.

Long-established property consultancies Naismiths and Edmond Shipway have announced a new “strategic partnership”. The firms have officially teamed up to create a combined group led by Ben Harwood as CEO. National real estate consultancy Naismiths was founded in 1963, and has a 50-strong team providing project monitoring, building consultancy and asset recovery services; Edmond Shipway, an independent construction and property consultancy, has been in operation for 60 years, across the leisure, commercial, residential, education, and healthcare sectors. Read here.

Cadogan, which owns around 90 acres of Chelsea and Knightsbridge, has recruited Seren Hirons to lead its placemaking strategy. She moves from marketing firm Four Communications, where she was MD of Brand & Luxury. Read here.

The King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership has signed up Stephen Hubbard to lead its board. Hubbard previously spent 40 years at CBRE, latterly as UK Chairman. He replaces Sir David Clementi, who chaired the KCCLP board for the last 16 years. Read here.