Knight Frank announces new head of lettings in King’s Cross office

Knight Frank has appointed Chris Nguyen as head of lettings in its King’s Cross office.

Nguyen joined Knight Frank’s Canary Wharf lettings team as a Negotiator in 2017. In 2021 he broke the record for the most deals agreed in a financial year and was promoted to associate later that year.

In his new role, Nguyen will run Knight Frank’s lettings office in King’s Cross. He will be tasked with leading the team of negotiators to build the firm’s market share in the area.

Nguyen commented: “I am excited to be joining a team that holds such a strong market presence in N1C. My aim is to further this and I am particularly looking forward to seeing the range of properties that King’s Cross has to offer as well as working with the diverse tenant profiles across a multitude of industries.”

Jon Reynolds, Regional Partner at Knight Frank added: “Having grown up in north London and with his extensive experience of new build developments, he [Nguyen] is perfectly placed to grow our business in the N1C and Bloomsbury areas.”

The Able Agent and ITEC NE appoint apprenticeship specialist 

Following on from the launch of The Able Agent and ITEC NE apprenticeship initiative, the two organisations have brought in Catherine Calvert to spearhead the new programme.

In her role as business development and property specialist, Calvert will be focused on supporting agents to find and retain new talent.

In the partnership, ITEC NE, which celebrates its 40th birthday this year, provides City and Guilds Business Administrator (Level 3) training alongside The Able Agent, so that estate and lettings agency apprentices utilise the training modules to complete assignments, making their learning relevant to the property industry.

Transforming a generic qualification into one that is exclusively tailored to the sector and providing a solid foundation for their future career progression. Combining it with Level 3 Certificate in Property Advice and Practice (CePAP®), a new agent can be fully qualified within 6–12 months, and valuable to the business even faster.

Calvert joined the industry in 2008 working with the North-East’s largest independent estate agent and has in-depth experience in all aspects of sales, lettings and auctions. In her previous senior management role, she focused on building strong teams utilising continued training and development including a successful strategy for developing apprentices. The addition of having a training qualification makes her a good all-round fit for the online training provider.

Charlotte Jeffery Campbell, founder and director of the Able Agent, said: “Many perceive that developing an apprentice can be more time-consuming than training a new staff member who is not ‘attached’ to a programme, whereas the opposite is true.

“Catherine’s appointment gives us the capacity and expertise to expand our offering and being able to launch an industry-first apprenticeship initiative is incredibly exciting for us. We’re on a mission to galvanise the industry and break the age-old cycle of high levels of first-year employee attrition and replace it with a steady stream of talent, helping agents attract good staff and move them through a highly successful career.”

Calvert commented: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to give back to an industry that has so much to offer young and more experienced adults interested in transferring their skills to the property sector in this challenging recruitment market. In a sector where the majority of staff need to be fee-earning but are not until they are trained, means finding the time to train up new members of staff can be a real challenge, especially in a small office.

“This initiative has been launched to help agencies get new members of staff up to a good industry level whilst they and their team instil their unique points of difference. There are a lot of standard and legislative requirements in the industry that can be learnt ‘away’ from the office [albeit online], freeing up precious time for established fee earners whilst ensuring best practice.

“Apprenticeships are open to people of all age groups and earning brackets. Ideal for school leavers and anyone wanting to transfer into new sectors or return to work following a career break.”

Tracy Wilson, managing director, at ITEC NE, added: “It’s wonderful to have Catherine to lead this course offering a wealth of sector based knowledge and experience. The course is already proving to be hugely popular with agents across the sector, and we are excited to see how this evolves over the coming months.”

ONP Group increases conveyancing capacity 30% through academy

ONP Group, the legal services provider to the residential property and remortgage markets, has increased its conveyancing capacity by 30% in just the past year.

At the start of last year ONP, which incorporates O’Neill Patient Solicitors, Grindeys, and Cavendish Legal Group, relaunched its academy programme to bring new conveyancers into the market. Since then, it has brought over 187 new people into the business – with 150 joining in the past year alone.

Its aim is to speed up the conveyancing process and make it more efficient. Training its own talented recruits allows it to build capacity in the organisation over time, developing skilled people throughout the organisation.

ONP Group has invested heavily in its IT, to streamline the conveyancing process. But it is also investing in its people at the same time. The 150 colleagues recruited and trained in the past 12 months, brings its total headcount to 640 staff up from 490 a year ago.

This increase is driven by soaring demand, initially driven by the stamp duty holiday. The conveyancing market as a whole, completed 1.8 million transactions last year, up 50% from 1.2 million in 2020.

ONP Group has set up the academy to have a new intake of up to 16 people every month. Its next academy will start on 5th September with 10 new trainees joining alongside a further intake of experienced conveyancers. The academy will consist of eight weeks of intensive training in a hybrid classroom and digital environment, hosted at ONP Group’s state-of-the-art offices in Stockport.

On graduating the academy, each individual joins an established conveyancing team, where they will be provided with mentorship from experienced conveyancers as well as team support. They progress from there to own a small number of cases, all of which are overseen as the individual continues to build their knowledge. Over the following year they gradually grow their pipeline and ultimately start to take on more complex cases, all with continued professional development and support.

More experienced conveyancers that join the training academy will take part in a fast-track course. This will involve a focus on learning the ONP Group processes and how to use its advanced technology systems, it will also provide individual development programmes. As ONP Group recruits more senior and experienced staff, it provides them with the opportunity to either manage their own caseload or balance case management with helping to mentor and train those who complete the academy.

Adam Forshaw, managing director of ONP Group, said: “We believe in investing in the conveyancing market and bringing new people into our industry. Increasing our headcount by 30% in the past year, shows our dedication to increasing our conveyancing capacity and helping to make life easier for brokers and their clients.

“We seek to build upon both the challenges and the business successes of the past two years, which saw exceptional demand. We are looking to build capacity through highly trained new staff, working in conjunction with our market-leading technology.

“By investing in our technology at the same time as our people, we are freeing up time for our case managers, giving them more time to devote to brokers and their clients.”