Yet another major estate agency has announced a further push into hybrid operations with a ‘virtual branch’ cold start.
Leaders, which has 116 offices all over the UK, says its latest expansion effort will be a virtual affair.
The company, which joined forces with Romans in 2016 to create the Leaders Roman Group (LRG), has now opened its second virtual branch.
This is to cover the Sheffield lettings market and follows a similar announcement by LRG last week which saw a similar virtual branch cold-start in Lincoln.
Leaders says the two virtual offices are part of its attempts to be more flexible as landlords and tenants demand a more digital property management service outside traditional office opening hours.
But the company’s claims gloss oveer a more stark industry trend – that the huge cost of running high street offices, lower footfall during Covid and the increasing obsolescence of physical branches are driving many agents of all sizes to try out the hybrid/virtual branch model.
Leaders latest office will be headed up by Rebecca Wood, who has worked within the property sector for nearly ten years, and has spent the last four within the LRG network including as a lettings manager and valuations manager.
“The launch of our virtual office in Sheffield demonstrates our commitment to the innovation and continued delivery of customer service in a growing number of areas,” says Peter Kavanagh (left), CEO of LRG (left).
“We are excited to announce our arrival [in Sheffield] and growing our business here, to provide Sheffield with our trustworthy and knowledgeable service.”
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