Brothers buy Harbour Properties

A PROPERTY lettings and management agency in Lancashire has changed hands.

Warton-based Harbour Properties, which covers the area between Lytham St Annes and Preston, including the Fylde Coast, has been bought by brothers Patrick and Sean O’Reilly from founder Steve Jones who has retired.

It has around 160 properties on its books and a turnover of £140,000.

The new owners plan to increase this to just over £150,000 with the addition of Sean O’Reilly’s own portfolio of 16 properties.

The brothers used their own capital to cover 40% of the purchase cost, with the balance supplied by Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking through the Government-backed Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS).

Patrick O’Reilly said: “We’ve wanted to run our own lettings business for many years and had been looking for the right opportunity. When we heard that Steve Jones was looking to retire, we both knew that this was the ideal business for us to take over and develop further ourselves.

“Working in the business before taking over has helped to ensure that the handover went seamlessly, enabling us to focus on improving the service we can offer our customers and make it more efficient in the coming year as we look to take on more properties.”