A record number of businesses have been bought this year by franchisees at The Property Franchise Group.

Sharon Tichmarsh, who was previously acquisitions director at Countrywide, has overseen the purchases of 27 businesses.

She said: “The biggest fish we landed was a business with 346 managed properties and the smallest consisted of 24 managed properties, but this came with a shop that we wanted in an ideal location.

“We have set our sights on 40 businesses to be acquired next year.”

Tichmarsh said that there is a 100% funding solution in place for franchisees, with lending decisions in principle within 48 hours.

She said that there are “a lot” of other agents on the acquisition trail but that if they were reliant on bank funding, the actual buying process could be slow because “underwriting criteria has become noticeably more stringent”.

CEO Ian Wilson said: “We have a process in place to make sure our franchisees make offers they can back up and can hit completion dates.

“It helps that we are an owner/manager network and not a faceless corporate who will tip the sellers’ clients into a call centre bucket.”

The six franchise brands at The Property Franchise Group are Martin & Co, Ellis & Co, Parkers, CJ Hole, Whitegates and EweMove.