Business
Post-lockdown bounce gives LSL cause for optimism
Property services group 'increasingly optimistic about market conditions' after strong trading in June & July; restarts marketing as focus turns to 'investing for future growth'
Guild relaunches auction offering for members
The "Guild Auctions" partnership with Iamsold allows GoPP members to operate their own branded auction platform.
Chestertons buys up Morgan Randall’s lettings business
31-branch Chestertons takes on well-known East London agency's staff and 'substantial' lettings book, but not its branches.
Rightmove names new finance chief
Alison Dolan starts as CFO in September, on a base salary of nearly £400k.
Winkworth reports busiest July in five years
100-office network notes a ‘significant recovery in sales interest’ as Chancellor’s stamp duty holiday ‘turbo-charges’ the market
Purplebricks‘ UK revenue tumbles 11%; instructions down by nearly a quarter
Hybrid agency says it is ‘emerging through the Covid-19 pandemic in a very strong position’, with a healthy cash balance of £66m and a focus ‘fully on the UK’
Fine & Country plans to become ‘the largest premium estate agency in the UK’; appoints a new Director to help make it so
F&C Leamington Spa boss Jonathan Handford is now a Director of Fine & Country UK.
John Lewis is considering turning surplus retail space into homes
"We are exploring with third parties the concept of new mixed-use affordable housing," says the John Lewis Partnership in a strategic review.
AI-driven construction management tool raises $16m
British/Israeli tech firm promises "to solve a challenge that for many seemed unconquerable", says investor.
Beauchamp Estates launches new base in Saint Tropez
International super-prime agency now covers all 71 miles of the Cote d’Azur.
Estate agents’ average commission fee rises to 1.5%
Agents in Kensington & Chelsea tend to charge a higher percentage than anywhere else in the country (2.32%) and earn the highest commission amount per sale (£32,430).
Marsh & Parsons’ Kensington sales boss returns to Knight Frank
Matthew Hodder-Williams has been recruited by his former agency to run one of its branches in Kent.