Property people: Dacre, Son & Hartley; Manning Stainton; and more
Yorkshire’s largest independent estate agent, Dacre, Son & Hartley has appointed David Simms to head the firm’s Guiseley office.
Simms, who lives locally in the town, brings a wealth of experience and local knowledge to the role after previously working at another Guiseley estate agent for six years. Prior to his appointment at Dacres, he worked for a national estate agency group in North Leeds.
In his new role he will be responsible for heading Guiseley’s residential sales team, which sells all types of homes, ranging from apartments through to farms and country houses, throughout Guiseley and its surrounding towns and villages including Hawksworth, Yeadon, Rawdon, Apperley Bridge and Carlton.
Simms said: “The Guiseley office sits in a prominent position, right in the heart of the town centre, and has an established team in place selling homes across a wide geographical area and at all price points, which all added to the appeal of this role.
“I’m also joining Dacres at a particularly busy time for the local property market. The pandemic has made a lot of people reassess their property priorities, so we’re currently seeing very high demand for good sized family homes with gardens.
“Plus, the stamp duty holiday has also encouraged a lot of people to move home earlier than they might have been planning on, which has created a major shortage of homes for sale in the local area.”
Patrick McCutcheon, head of residential at Dacre, Son & Hartley, added: “David is a knowledgeable and experienced estate agent who knows the local market inside out, which made him the ideal person to head up our Guiseley office.”
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Leeds-based estate agent, Manning Stainton, has appointed long-serving employee, Clare Frieze, to head of sales.
Frieze has worked for Manning Stainton for 23-years, most recently as head of training and development.
Her new role will see her developing and delivering the company’s sales strategy, and ensuring employees based across the 19-strong branch network are all working to the same, agreed targets.
She will work with branch managers, the marketing team and HR to ensure the sales strategy is effectively delivered and customers receive a high level of service.
Frieze started her career at Manning Stainton in 1997 aged 19, working as an administrator in the agent’s Adel branch.
She spent several years in various roles across the branch network, before becoming training and development manager in 2017, where she held responsibility for training new recruits and existing employees.
She said: “I’m thrilled to have been appointed head of sales and am looking forward to delivering a successful sales strategy alongside my colleagues across the business.
“I’ve spent 23-years working at Manning Stainton, and will be building on what is already a brilliant working culture to ensure our highly skilled and motivated team continue to deliver the high standards and service our customers expect.”
Mark Manning, managing director, added: “Clare is a long-serving and highly valued member of our team who knows both the business and the local property market inside out, so we know she’ll do a fantastic job leading the team to effectively deliver our sales strategy.
“We’re looking forward to having another successful year, and Clare will play a vital role in helping us achieve our objectives.”
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Leeds-based property investment company ERE Property has made new appointments to its lettings division as it continues with its growth plans for 2021 and beyond.
New recruits are senior property manager Gaby Madronero and property managers Prudence Wright and Sian Hawkins.
The company, which offers a property investment, portfolio management and lettings service, is also expanding its sales team and is moving to new, larger offices in Leeds city centre in May.
Chris Stone, lettings director, said: “We are committed to providing the highest levels of service possible to investors, landlords and tenants and investing in a high calibre team is integral to this.
“We have seen an upturn in the market this year, due to low interest rates, good exchange rates for overseas investors, and a shift in lifestyle choices due to the pandemic causing many people to move and creating strong rental demand in certain areas.
“Property is a solid investment opportunity and with negative interest rates being muted, this is now more the case than ever before.
“There’s no doubt it has been a challenging year, but the property market is resilient, and we have taken this time to build a strong team to take the company forward, providing the optimum investment, management and lettings service.”
