The boss of a property consultancy has reported its busiest year yet despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.
Wells McFarlane director and co-founder Andrew McFarlane Holt said the Leicestershire chartered surveyor and property agents had had a record year thanks to a combination of creative thinking, team commitment and longstanding client relationships.
The Lutterworth firm specialises in commercial property and rural estate management and development land planning.
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Mr McFarlane Holt said: “There’s no denying that the last year has been tough for all businesses, facing unknown challenges and timeframes battling the pandemic.
“Despite this, we have shown resilience and a willingness to adapt that has enabled us to perform far better than expected.
“From a deals perspective, we’ve completed on more commercial space than last year, helping new businesses with their first premises and existing companies relocate or expand.
“There was a lot of talk about the death of the office market, but regionally we found this was not the case. Demand for out-of-town and rural business parks remained equally high, especially in sectors such as logistics, technology and home improvement.
“We’ve also seen real ingenuity from our landlords to reconfigure and even construct new space to suit the market, as well as working closely with business owners and tenants to discuss mitigating risk but also how they might scale back up as recovery happens.
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“Obviously this all formed a substantial part of our growth and gives us confidence that a similar volume of work can be achieved over the next 12 months. We have good quality office, warehouse and industrial space available now and transactions are still happening.”
Right now the business is promoting a new business park going up on a disused agricultural buildings site in Leicestershire which is already half pre-let.
Manor Business Park in Thurlaston, is scheduled to finish this spring or summer and will have 11 units offering 21,000 sq ft of light industrial/warehouse space.
Wells McFarlane has been pre-marketing the park’s first phase of five units, all of which have been let.
Highlights for Wells McFarlane in 2020 included director Jason Hercock being named Leicestershire’s most active dealmaker for the second successive year in the annual Estates Gazette competition; two new members of staff being appointed to oversee the company’s accounts and communications functions; and a major land deal securing more than three acres for supermarket chain Aldi.
Fellow director and co-founder Trevor Wells said: “Our achievements throughout 2020 were remarkable given the circumstances, and we’re exceptionally proud of our team, none of whom were furloughed and all have shown such enthusiasm and appetite to provide the best service for our clients.
“Together, we’re now working on a number of strategic sites to expand our work across Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Warwickshire in the year ahead.”