Belvoir has made the unusual move of revealing how much one of its franchisees has paid to buy a rival agency.
The company says its Brighton franchisees Nathan Crombie and Wai Lam (above, LtoR) have paid £1 million to purchase competing local business Homelets (Brighton) Ltd, a 25-year-old lettings agency that comes with 339 managed properties.
The acquisition triples the size of the duo’s Belvoir-branded lettings business overnight and was facilitated by Belvoir’s financial support to complete the deal. HomeLets is a healthy business and, based on the company’s most recently filed corporation tax payments, made a profit of approximately £350,000 last year.
Staff from the business are to be transferred to the Belvoir Brighton business but the Homelets directors, Peter Hughes and Sonia Brignall, are seeking new opportunities elsewhere. The Homelets business will be re-branded to Belvoir.
Opportunity
“Wai and I have been looking for an opportunity to grow our business for some time, and when this opportunity was brought to our attention by the Belvoir acquisition team, it seemed ideal,” says Nathan.
“We took time to get to know the business and understand what this would mean, and we are now looking forward to expanding our client base and working with new landlords and tenants.”
The purchase comes just four years after Lam and Crombie joined the Belvoir family after buying the Brighton franchise from a previous owner.
“From day one they have worked extremely hard and demonstrated real determination and entrepreneurial spirit, winning several Belvoir and national awards in the process,” says Belvoir CEO Dorian Gonsalves (left).
“Nathan and Wai also offer a residential sales service, and I am confident that this acquisition will be of enormous benefit to the business, the brand and also to local landlords, tenants and investors. We wish them every success for the future.”
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