Franchise group Belvoir is poised to announce more acquisitions made by its local agents within the first quarter of this year. A number of deals are with lawyers and expected to complete shortly.

The group helped its franchisees make 23 acquisitions in 2017, worth a collective £3.3m, and describes its current pipeline as “robust”.

Last year’s deals, under Belvoir’s “assisted acquisitions” programme which offers financial support to its franchisees in order to buy up rivals, exceeded a target set by the firm’s board of £3m.

Of the 23 deals completed during the year, 14 were by the Northwood network (acquired by Belvoir in June 2016), with one by Newton Fallowell, and another eight by Belvoir.

Belvoir said that the acquisitions added an ongoing £350,000 per annum of recurring management service fees, which represent the group’s main revenue stream, and 2,264 managed properties, boosting the group’s overall portfolio by 4%. The Belvoir Group now has over 58,000 managed properties.

Belvoir chief executive Dorian Gonsalves said: “The assisted acquisitions programme has proved to be very popular within the recently acquired Newton Fallowell and Northwood networks. Of the deals completed in 2017, over two-thirds were undertaken by these networks, who had not previously benefitted from the expertise and financial support that has been available to the Belvoir network for several years.

“In addition to exceeding our target completions for 2017, we ended the year with a very robust pipeline of deals currently with lawyers which we would expect to complete in the first quarter of 2018.

“The appetite for securing portfolio acquisitions reflects the entrepreneurial spirit of our franchisees who are adapting to changes within the sector and seeing opportunity for growth as the sector consolidates.”