Member Article

Brothers buy Preston property agency

Harbour Properties, the property lettings and management agency based in Preston, has been acquired by brothers Patrick and Sean O’Reilly from founder Steve Jones.

Harbour currently has around 160 properties on its books and a turnover of £140,000.

Sean O’Reilly has his own portfolio of 16 properties, with which he plans to grow Harbour’s turnover to just over £150,000 this year.

Primarily a letting agency, the company also deals with management and sales, covering the area between Lytham St Annes to Preston including the Fylde Coast.

Steve Jones and his original staff have now retired, and the O’Reilly brothers intend to run the business between them and their sons.

The deal was part-funded with support from Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking through the government’s Funding for Lending Scheme.

Patrick O’Reilly said: “We’ve wanted to run our own lettings business for many years and had been looking for the right opportunity.

“When we heard that Steve Jones was looking to retire, we both knew that this was the ideal business for us to take over and develop further ourselves.

“Working in the business before taking over has helped to ensure that the handover went seamlessly, enabling us to focus on improving the service we can offer our customers and make it more efficient in the coming year as we look to take on more properties.”

Jennifer Guy, relationship manager for Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking, added: “It’s great to see the future of a strong local business like Harbour Properties secured as a new management team takes over.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .