New operations director for AddLiving

Stephen Wilson has joined AddLiving, Addington Capital’s sister residential lettings and management business, as the new operations director.

Wilson joins from Touchstone where he was as associate director, leading a team across multiple residential sites in London and the South East. Prior to that he was a portfolio manager at Touchstone, managing a team of nine to look after 1,100 residential properties and 15 commercial properties in London.

Before joining Touchstone in 2017 Wilson had worked at residential agents Citystyle Living Ltd.

Wilson’s recruitment to Add Living comes hot on the heels of appointing James Curry from Daniel Watney as a new residential property manager. These new appointments take AddLiving to a team of 10.
Martin Roberts, AddLiving co-director, said: “He [Wilson] has a strong track record and experience which will enhance our property management expertise.”

Matthew Allen, co-director, added: “Having our own residential management and lettings platform gives us the control we need to ensure the delivery of successful investment strategies in the residential sector.”

Rebecca Close joins Savills as an associate 

Savills has added to its building and project consultancy team with the appointment of Rebecca Close who joins as an associate at the firm’s Cambridge office.

Close has over eight years’ experience working in the construction and property industry. She joins Savills from project management firm Hamson Barron Smith where she primarily worked with local authority clients including Peterborough City Council and Cambridgeshire County Council. Prior to this she also held positions at Bond Davidson and Axis Europe.

James Kelway, head of the Cambridge building and project consultancy team, commented: “Her [Close’s] expertise will help to further bolster the team who continue to make excellent progress in growing key areas for the business both here in Cambridge and across the region.”4

Just Mortgages appoints new MD to lead its self-employed division

Just Mortgages has appointed Ben Allkins as a new managing director, responsible for leading its self-employed division, an arm of the business which has grown its adviser count to almost 400.

Alkins has taken on the newly created role, which oversees both mortgages and protection, after working as a regional director for the company.

Allkins’ appointment is part of “ambitious growth plans” for the brokerage firm’s self-employed division.

In total, Just employs more than 560 mortgage advisers which work on either an employed or self-employed basis. The employed minority are either based in Spicerhaart estate agents or at home.

But the broker has already announced plans to double its overall headcount to 1,000 by 2023/24.

The new MD will oversee a £1m investment into upgrading the business’s support and systems over the next 12 months.

Alkins said: “The self-employed division only succeeds if our brokers are successful, so my role is to ensure we invest in areas that make tangible differences for our team.

“While the self-employed team at Just Mortgages already receives industry-leading support, we will look at all the pinch points where we can improve and make changes to make our brokers’ lives easier.”

He added: “We will certainly continue to grow in the next few years, but one of our key aims is to make sure our team is working as efficiently as possible.

“From admin support to developing state of the art CRM [customer relationship management] systems, we work closely with our brokers to help them maximise their time advising clients.”