After renting out more than 35,000 homes since opening its doors as a dedicated letting agent 16 years ago, Linley & Simpson has moved into a new era by launching its own sales department.
The independent agency – which has grown to become Yorkshire’s largest letting specialist – will phase in a residential sales service across all ten of its branches across the county within the next year, creating more than 30 jobs, it has revealed.
And it has turned to the expertise of Mark Christopher, a chartered surveyor with more than 30 years’ experience in multi-site branch management for regional independents as well as corporate estate agents, to spearhead its expansion programme.
Founding director of Linley & Simpson, Will Linley, said: This breaks new ground for us – and forms the biggest development and investment in our history.
Under Mark’s leadership, this forms a natural progression for the company and is one which will complement, rather than compete with, our letting specialism. We remain committed to expanding our letting business by building on the four acquisitions we made last year.
Our offices cover all the most popular places to live in Yorkshire and are well-placed to take advantage of the rise in sales activity that we expect 2014 and beyond will bring.
With returning customer confidence, increased buyer activity, and initiatives such as the Help to Buy scheme, we believe now is the time to enter the sales marketplace for the first time.
Linley & Simpson now employs over 100 staff and has established offices across Yorkshire, including three in Leeds, Ilkley, Saltaire, Harrogate, York, Ripon, Wetherby and Wakefield.
Accelerating the momentum from a successful sales ‘pilot’ at its Saltaire branch, the next group of branches to go live this week are its three Leeds offices in the City Centre, Horsforth and Roundhay.
The company’s new Head of Residential Sales, Mark Christopher, said: We have been researching the potential of developing a residential sales niche for some time and have carried out a trial at our newly-opened branch in Saltaire in the Aire Valley, which we acquired with both a letting and sales specialism.
We are determined to build on the success of this pilot and are confident that the strength of the Linley & Simpson brand, coupled with the pool of talent we are recruiting into the new department, will quickly establish us in the Yorkshire residential sales market.
For the first time, it also enables us to meet the needs of the growing number of landlords and private customers who are asking us to deal with their own property sales.
