The Property Franchise Group (TPFG) and Belvoir Group have agreed to a merger to create a wide-reaching property franchise business.

The new group will have more than 930 property franchise offices, managing about 152,000 tenanted properties across the UK and is expected to sell more than 28,000 properties each year through its estate agent arms. The merger, which should take place during the first quarter of 2024, would give the new group a market capitalisation of approximately £214 million.

Six brands

Belvoir is a property franchise group with 333 locations across six brands, specialising in residential lettings, property management, and residential sales. It also has a property-related financial services business of 308 advisers trading under the MAB brand.

TPFG – whose brands include EweMove, Hunters and Martin & Co - believes that the merger should also help franchisees buy managed portfolios of tenanted properties. Property franchisors have traditionally tended to remain focused in regions where they were established; Belvoir, EweMove and Hunters have always been more northern-focused and Martin & Co and Northwood more southern-focused.

Increased scale

TPFG anticipates that the new group’s customers and wider stakeholders will benefit from increased scale, breadth of offering and diversity of brands, and improved geographical reach.

A Belvoir spokesman tells LandlordZONE: "Our service to landlords is delivered by our passionate, local franchisees who are owner/operators, and their customers (landlords) will be completely unaffected by the merger. It will be business as usual.”

Entrepreneurial

Jon Di-Stefano (pictured), Belvoir’s non-executive chairman, says the businesses have much in common, each supporting a network of entrepreneurial franchises. He adds: “It will create one of the UK’s largest multi-brand lettings and estate agency groups combined with a growing financial services business.  

“With their complementary geographic footprints providing both scale and diversification across a variety of high street and hybrid brands, combined with high levels of recurring revenue, we feel sure that the combined group will provide a robust platform from which to grow.”