Lomond funds fresh letting deal for Thornley Groves

THORNLEY Groves, the south Manchester estate and lettings agency has completed a further bolt-on acquisition funded by parent company Lomand Capital.

Its latest deal is for Vital Space’s Manchester city centre lettings operations, leaving former owner Paul Whiteman with a central sales operation and sales and lettings offices in Urmston and Chorlton.

Lomand acquired the Altrincham-based Thornley Groves company in September 2013 with a commitment to fund growth, particularly in the Manchester city centre lettings market.

Mr Whiteman, who is working on a handover of the city centre lettings business to Thornley Groves, said: “This deal will allow Vital Space to further strengthen our presence in key growth suburbs and I want to build on the success we’re enjoying with our Urmston and Chorlton offices.

“The sheer size of the private rented sector in the city centre means that the speed of change and investment needed in both systems and people to deliver a service that today’s landlords, tenants and institutional residential property investors requires a business with significant scale and capabilities.

“I’m confident that Thornley Groves with the backing of Lomond Capital will prove to be a very safe pair of hands for our customers.”

Stuart Pender, chief executive of Lomond Capital, said: “Manchester has a very attractive property market offering with the largest private rental sector outside London. It has been a key market for Lomond Capital for some time now and we are delighted to add Vital Space’s Manchester city centre lettings business to that of Allison and Co’s managed property portfolio and that of Penny Ashton Lettings both of which were integrated into Thornley Groves in the last eight months.

“We continue to look for opportunities to strengthen our offering in Manchester whilst working on a number of opportunities in other cities in England including Leeds and Birmingham.”