North East letting agency My Property Box teams up with private equity to fund ambitious growth plans

Specialist letting agent My Property Box has teamed up with a private equity firm as it seeks to expand its operations into West Yorkshire.

The Darlington-headquartered company, which lets homes throughout the North East and North Yorkshire, is currently looking to gain a foothold in the Leeds area.

It is working with investment company Winch & Co, which will fund its expansion through the acquisition of other letting agencies in key target areas.

In a separate move, My Property Box is also in negotiations over the acquisition of a letting agent in North Yorkshire to extend its reach within the county.

Managing director Ben Quaintrell said: “Since founding the business in 2012, My Property Box has expanded rapidly from its original Tees Valley heartland.

“Last year we acquired two letting agents in Thornaby and Darlington and, as a result, we currently manage more than 1,000 homes valued at a total of £50 million.

“We are an innovative company with an ambitious growth strategy and that includes establishing a presence in Leeds, which has a vibrant rental market and is one of the best areas in the UK for property investment.

“I’m seeking to acquire a lettings business in Leeds with the help and support of Winch & Co, which has extensive local expertise as well as acquisition experience.”

In addition to managing properties and sourcing new landlords, My Property Box operates a property lettings function, focused mainly in the North East.

Nathan Winch, partner at Leeds-based Winch & Co, said: “We are pleased to be working with Ben and My Property Box in this exciting venture.

“We focus on professional service businesses, particularly property, so this project couldn’t have come at a better time.”

Winch & Co has been involved in several private equity deals and investments across a variety of sectors. Its focus is on professional services, including finance, legal, and accounting businesses, with a preference for those deriving recurring income from repeatable or ongoing trading activities.  

Ben added: “I’m looking forward to implementing our growth plan with the assistance of Winch & Co. We can see the synergies and that will allow us to achieve our goal within a reasonable timeframe.” 

winchandco.com

mypropertybox.co.uk

Housing developers will be given automatic permission for developments under Boris Johnson’s shake-up of the planning system.

The PMs Build Build Build programme is aimed at simplifying and speeding up the current time it takes for developments to be put up.

At present it takes around five years for the typical development to finally get the planning go-ahead. Under the new rules that time will be reduced to three years.

And it’s not only housing developments that will find it easier to move through the local government planning system. Those constructing new schools and hospitals – as well as offices and shops – will also find, if not an open door, then one that is already very much half ajar.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick, writing in the Telegraph newspaper, said the Prime Minister was intent on creating “a simpler and faster planning system.”

From September it will be possible to change a town centre commercial building to residential use without the need for a planning application. Householders will also be able to ‘fast track’ applications for two further storeys onto their homes.

UK land – one of three new categories

Under the new reforms, UK land will be separated into three categories – either for growth, renewal or protection.

The automatic permission is for developments planned for the ‘growth’ category. Having received automatic permission, a development in the growth category will only get the go ahead if it fits with local development plans and eligible building types earmarked for the area.

The renewal category covers brownfield land and urban sites. There are plans for buildings to conform to an official ‘style book.’

Protected areas are current Green Belt land and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The three different categories of land are to be decided by individual local authorities and the communities that live there.

Despite the reduction in timescales for new developments to go through planning, there wouldn’t be a similar reduction in standards, insists the Housing Secretary. Every new street, he adds, will be tree-lined and minimum standards for design will be set.

Meanwhile, some government critics are sceptical over whether the proposals to secure planning permission will make much difference. Housing charity Shelter say that from 2011 to 2016 a total of 280,000 homes received permission but were never built.

Hannah Vickers, chief executive, Association for Consultancy & Engineering also added a word of caution. Saying it was more about ‘deliver, deliver, deliver’ than ‘build, build, build’ she added: “While we may wish to speed up programmes and projects, this won’t be possible without business confidence.”

Bringing planning proposals online

The planning system will also become digitalised under the new reforms. By this Jenrick means residents will be able to comment on planning proposals of their area via an online interactive map. Currently planning proposals are available via the council’s planning agenda, planning notices and by posters near the location.

The highest jump in 11 years – that’s how much the cost of the average property in the UK increased last month according to the Nationwide Index. But then, things have been a bit crazy in general in recent months.

What it does mean though is that the predictions about the ‘V shaped curve’ – where the market fell then returned pretty quickly – weren’t that wrong, after all. Whether the right-hand side of that ‘V’ starts to flatten out though in the coming months is highly likely.

The Nationwide’s jump was 1.7% – the highest jump since August 2009. Mortgage approvals are back on course according to the Bank of England. But they are still 40% lower than in March pre-pandemic.

Overall house prices are 1.5% higher year-on-year. And that figure is expected to rise even more as prospective buyers make use of Rishi Sunak’s Stamp Duty holiday over the following eight months. Unless, that is, unemployment in October once the furlough scheme ends then results in a fall in demand.