Michael Graham appoints Stephen Fairfax as senior partner

Specialist town and country estate agent Michael Graham has appointed Stephen Fairfax as senior partner of Land and New Homes.

Highly experienced in both the London and Northern home counties markets, Fairfax joins Michael Graham from Savills and will lead the marketing activity for the brand across the company’s portfolio of 14 offices across eight regions in the Midlands and home counties.

Fairfax brings with him extensive experience in the sale and consultancy of both land and new build homes having worked in the industry for nearly three decades, 17 years of them in central London, eight as partner at Knight Frank.

Fairfax is tasked with developing the newly created Land and New Homes department at Michael Graham, establishing and building relationships with land owners and property developers in the region.

He commented: “The property industry has never been more dynamic and I’m looking forward to working with new developers, providing them with land opportunities and helping with the sale of their new developments as they work  to meet the rising demand for new housing in the region.”

Richard Banks, director at Michael Graham, said: “It is fantastic to have someone of Stephen’s background and experience joining us at such an exciting time for the business. With his energy, professionalism and industry wide reputation for excellent customer care, I have no doubt that he will achieve exceptional results in 2021 and beyond.”

Just Mortgages set to train 120 new brokers

Just Mortgages aims to bring in 120 new brokers into the mortgage industry over the next 12 months. These brokers will be provided with full training.

There will be a total of ten academies offered by the firm in the next year, and each will accommodate an average of 12 trainee brokers. Competition for places is fierce with on average over 1,000 applications for each Just Mortgages’ academy.

The academies are open to those with, and without prior experience of financial services.

Those without CeMap1 take a five-week course, the first two-weeks of which are focused on achieving their CeMap1 qualification. Those who have CeMap1 already join for the final three weeks which builds upon the CeMap1 qualification, developing a range of skills that will enable them to succeed in the market.

Rodney Sloan, head of training for Just Mortgages, said: “When we are recruiting for the academies, we don’t just look for experience in financial services, we also look at the skillset of a person and if these skills can translate to being a broker.

“The range of different experiences that those on the academies bring is really varied and everyone who joins brings a different perspective resulting in some great sessions.”

Bruton Knowles appoints Ian Mulvaney

Bruton Knowles has recruited Ian Mulvaney to head up its new building consultancy national team.

A chartered management building surveyor by trade with over 25 years’ experience, Mulvaney, who also becomes a partner at Bruton Knowles, joins from Fulkers Consultancy, where he was an associate director.

He said: “We all recognise the scale and seriousness of the global climate emergency, and as a business, we have a duty to respond to that situation alongside the wider property and construction industry.

“A major focus for this new national team will be on sustainability and the green agenda. We must play our part in ensuring clients can proactively deliver carbon reduction targets in line with both emerging government policy and their own stakeholder needs.

“This is especially important, given UK buildings account for 30% of the country’s carbon emissions, and that those arising from new construction accounts for half of that attributable to a building over its lifetime.”

“We also want to support our clients in meeting the improvement standards and legislative requirements arising in the post-Grenfell era. The scope of cladding, fire remediation and improvement works has significantly increased since the disaster.”