More independents looking to join franchises, says Martin & Co boss

In an unusual gesture, Martin & Co has publicly congratulated arch rival Belvoir for beating it.

Belvoir won title of best lettings franchise business at the Estate Agency Events lettings awards bash sponsored by The Times and Sunday Times. Martin & Co took silver.

Afterwards, Martin & Co said: “We wish to warmly congratulate Belvoir, who were awarded gold for their lettings franchise.

“These awards display the power of franchise brands in the present lettings property market, and show that your chances of business success are greatly improved within a franchise than outside of one.

“The awards, sponsored by The Sunday Times and The Times newspapers, are the pinnacle of the lettings industry and are hotly contested by all the top letting agents in the UK.”

Martin & Co’s managing director Ian Wilson said: “The awards to ourselves and Belvoir underline the high professional standards that we operate to.

“The years since 2007 have been the most successful in Martin & Co’s history – 80 new businesses opened, many of which are already market leaders in their locality. The reason for this is that we have highly motivated franchise owners backed up by a national quality infrastructure.

“If you are an independent letting agent, who do you turn to for help with web design, digital marketing, training, software, legal advice and best practices? It can make you feel very isolated. However, being part of a franchise brand enables you to see that you are with like-minded business owners pushing to achieve even greater success.”

He added: “In the first three months of 2013, we’ve already seen six franchise owners renew their franchises for another five-year term, which demonstrates that the franchise works, and they are very happy with their original decision to join the brand.

“We focus on delivering a consistently first-class service across the country via a network of almost 200 offices. The fact that we win over 1,000 new property instructions every month is testament to the power of brands, and the fact that we can send a professional quality newsletter to 100,000 landlord email addresses every month.

“We are demonstrating that being part of a national brand identity adds real value at a local level, and we are now being approached by independent lettings businesses wanting to join the brand.”

The overall best letting agent in the UK was, however, a family-run independent – Sewell & Gardner.

ARLA managing director Ian Potter won the award for outstanding contribution to the industry, making it a hat-trick for ARLA as he was following in the footsteps of previous winners – former ARLA presidents Lucy Morton and Tim Hyatt.