Lomond announces acquisition of ten businesses in first quarter following merger with Linley & Simpson

Linley & Simpson and Lomond joined forces at the end of 2020 to create a new national lettings and estate agency group capable of delivering rapid growth over the next couple of years.

The newly-formed property powerhouse has during the first quarter since the merger announced ten acquisition spread across all regions, including Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton and Yorkshire.

The new venture, co-created by both businesses and backed by leading mid-market private equity firm LDC, has today shared an upbeat report of its first quarter’s trading, noting that acquisitions in the first quarter and the pipeline for the balance of the year has significantly exceeded expectations.

Will Linley, the former CEO of Yorkshire-based Linley & Simpson and now Group Managing Director of Lomond, said “We are delighted with progress on acquisitions during the first quarter and envisage this level of activity being at least maintained if not exceeded over the balance of the year. We have seen significant interest from agents keen to join our rapidly increasing network of good quality regional agencies.”

The new national lettings and estate agency group has brought together some of the strongest names on the UK High Street, including Linley & Simpson; Thornley Groves; Brand Vaughan; John Shepherd; Stonehouse and Braemore with a combined portfolio of properties under management of over 23,000.

Lomond has major hubs across key rental hot spots across England and Scotland, including Aberdeen, Birmingham, Brighton, Edinburgh, Hull, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and York and is looking to continue to grow in existing regions whilst looking to expand into new regions.

Will Linley added: “Each of our quarter one acquisitions has been both a strategic and geographical fit for our existing footprint. They have been completed across all our key heartlands - from Aberdeen to Brighton, and many other towns and cities in-between. We are actively pursuing a number of other acquisitions and are always keen to hear from other letting agents who may be considering selling both in these existing regions and in new regions.”

Lomond also announced the expansion of the Acquisitions Team with the appointment of Lucy Noonan as Acquisitions Manager. Lucy was recruited from LSL Property Services where she was Acquisition and Integration Project Manager. She was formerly Operations Director at Belvoir PLC. Will Linley commented:

“We are thrilled to attract someone of Lucy’s calibre, and proven track record in acquisitions, to the heart of our central leadership team. “She is the first of a number of appointments that will be joining us over the next two months, as we build the team to support our growing network of quality regional lettings and estate agencies.” Before backing the creation of Lomond in December 2020, LDC backed Linley & Simpson and helped it grow significantly through an ambitious acquisition strategy across the Yorkshire region – making 18 acquisitions and doubling its portfolio from 5,000 to 10,000 properties since 2018.