Those familiar with the city of Manchester and its surrounding suburbs will know that the area has done much to achieve its growing status as the “Capital of the North” in recent years. Thornley Groves – Manchester’s leading Estate Agents – are well aware of the city’s increasing popularity and recently opened up a brand new state of the art office in the heart of the city centre to cope with this growing demand.

Across the board we are seeing increased activity in the Manchester property market, which is showing signs of a return to liquidity after a difficult period experienced by the entire U.K. property market following the onset of the world recession in late 2007.

Thornley Groves maintains a large database of registered purchasers and this pool of applicants has increased by 13 percent during the past year alone. The number of sales stock available is also up 25 percent on this time last year, while perhaps most significantly of all, the number of sales stock under offer with Thornley Groves has increased 33 percent during the same period. In short, we are seeing huge increases in Manchester property market activity across the board – and this is of course fantastic news for home-sellers and purchasers alike!

Michael Groves, Managing Director of Thornley Groves Estate Agents in Manchester, said “All the evidence we are seeing points to a strong return to activity in the Manchester property market. While it is fair to say that one swallow does not a summer make, the combination of quantitative growth and qualitative performance indicators that we are seeing such as swift sales, seller-confidence, and increased property search activity, are positive signs. Home-sellers should certainly be more confident now of achieving sales in what is looking to be an increasingly buoyant market once again.”

In addition to growth in registered purchasers, sales stock available and stock under offer over the previous year, we have also seen a sharp increase in market interest in recent months, and our Open House events are attracting not only high attendance levels but also numerous offers being made for showcased properties on the day of these events.

All of this makes for an extremely positive and pro-active property market here in Manchester and the surrounding suburbs of Sale, Hale and Altrincham, and Thornley Groves is proud to be playing our part in helping find the right homes for you!

Want to know how much your home is worth? Book a Free no obligation valuation and marketing consultation today with Manchester’s leading Estate Agent at http://www.thornleygroves.co.uk/valuation-request/

Thornley Groves are  just days away from opening our ground breaking new office in Central Manchester and have already had vendors and landlords clambering to be amongst the first to take advantage of our brand new marketing initiative to make their property stand out from the crowd.

 “What exactly is it?” you ask, that will enable us to do things differently……..it’s a video wall over 3 meters tall and a meter wide that will play day and night to the thousands of passersby on John Dalton Street, one of Manchester City Centres busiest thoroughfares featuring the superb developments that exist in and around the city centre.

 Flat screen marketing for property has been around a long time; agents all over the world have used plasma screens to showcase their stock for some years now but we believe TGTV is entirely different and really lends itself to the type of residential property available to buy or rent in Manchester city centre.

 In the suburbs there are streets and streets of houses – Terraced, Semis, Detached, old and new, they’re all different and you need to see photos both inside and out to understand if you’re going to like them.

 In the City the buildings themselves are Brands and we want to showcase them and their unique features to open them up to all those people who pass them without ever understanding what they have to offer. What does the building itself stand for? What type of people live there?

 Manchester has some wonderful Iconic Developments, buildings like the Hacienda, Number One Deansgate, LeftBank and Beetham Tower standing proud alongside the Grand Old Dames of the city like Smithfield Buildings, Chepstow House, Century Buildings and Chorlton Mill.

 Trend setting schemes like Timber Wharf in Castlefield, Chips in Ancoats and Express Networks alongside the Northern Quarter have proved fertile enough to allow whole communities to spring up around them with shops, bars and leisure facilities.

 Our Video wall will enable us to show case the buildings and the unique facets of their little corner of town, it will help us to demonstrate why life in the city has attracted so many people, both young and old, escaping suburbia to enjoy all that the city has to offer.

 Buyers and Tenants want to express their personalities by the building they live in, they want to emulate the admirable, they want to be gregarious, sociable and hospitable and we can show them how to achieve all those things through the home they choose to live in.  

 Our new office won’t have A4 sheets of paper in the window with pictures of the same buildings with different kitchens featuring tea towels on ovens and bikes on balconies. We want to show Buyers and Tenants the best that Manchester has to offer, it is the buildings themselves and what’s around them that attracts people and not a photograph of someone else’s double bed.

 The best way to market City Centre property is to highlight the appealing features of the developments themselves instead of blandly describing the accommodation. At Thornley Groves we will achieve this by pulling together all of the property we market through our FOUR city centre offices and feature them on the big screen in our new office in John Dalton Street.

 If you own and want to rent or sell a property in one of Manchester’s Iconic Residential Developments, you need an agent that’s going to demonstrate to buyers and tenants why it’s great to live there, why you bought it, after all you thought about your decision long and hard, you made a choice and you now need an agent that understands Manchester Property to highlight those advantages to the next occupier.

 Make your property stand out from the crowd, list it now with Manchester’s most innovative and high Profile Estate Agent call 0161 245 1111 or  click www.thornleygroves.co.uk/valuation-request to book a FREE valuation and receive effective marketing advice.

 View a VIDEO presentation of our Sales and Lettings service at www.youtube.co.uk/thornleygroves

 We think you’ll notice the difference !

We work hard to provide unrivalled customer satisfaction and it’s our clients and customers we want to impress with service that exceeds their expectations, yesterday our hard work was rewarded when we were honoured with a National award as a direct result of customer satisfaction.

Thornley Groves Estate Agents won the Prestigious Silver award for best UK small Letting Agent Chain.

The ESTAs 2010 were presented yesterday at the Marriott Hotel Park Lane London as the industry honoured the best estate agents in the UK.

The awards were presented by Phil Spencer of Location Location Location at a lavish lunch and ceremony attended by 450 of the UK’s top estate and letting agents.

The agents were recognised for their excellent customer service, as voted for by their clients during 2009. 

Phil Spencer said: “the great thing about the ESTAs is that the judges are the customers, they are not about impressing a panel of industry experts or how well you write your submission or answer questions in a telephone interview, but about the things agents do every day for their clients and customers”

The Letting agent results were determined by research carried out amongst both Landlords and Tenants both of which are a tricky group of people to impress, and these people were asked a series of questions about the service they have received from their letting agent.

Michael Groves  who attended the event is delighted for his team “A very large part of our business is lettings, we are Manchester City Centres and indeed Trafford’s busiest letting agent, our Property Management Department is trusted by thousands of landlords, when dealing with such volumes of flats to let and property rentals it’s important that our people and our systems are the best, this award proves that Thornley Groves have superb people delivering effective and reliable solutions for both Landlords and Tenants, achieved by having some of the best Letting and Management procedures in the whole of the UK”

Over 19,000 votes were received, making the ESTAS the largest survey as well as the most meaningful award scheme in the industry. Spencer also pointed out that there were no categories for the likes of best marketing campaign or lifetime achievement in the industry – “These don’t mean anything to the consumer, these awards are purely about the consumer experience,” he said.

Jason Watkin Operations Director of  Thornley Groves confirmed “an award that recognises customer service is very satisfying, every business strives to give good customer service but it can only be delivered if the employees at every level understand and respond to the needs of their customers every day.  I want to say a huge thank you to our Lettings Managers and our Property Management Department Managers along with members of their respective teams. Our Landlords and Tenants have received a service that motivated them respond to this competition so positively and has put Thornley Groves up there with the best the UK has to offer”

Below are the Results

Best Estate Agent in the UK

Porter Glenny, Barking & Dagenham – Gold
House-Hut – Silver
Sparks Ellison – Bronze

Best Small Estate Agent Chain
Porter Glenny, Essex – Gold
Dale Eddison, Yorkshire – Silver
Bassets – Bronze

Best Large Estate Agent Chain
Countrywide – Gold
Webbers – Silver
Your Move – Bronze

Best Letting Agent in the UK
Martin & Co Glasgow – Gold
Palmer Snell, Wells – Silver
Kerrigans – Bronze

Best Small Letting Agent Chain
Linley & Simpson – Gold
Thornley Groves – Silver
Homes4u – Bronze

Best Large Letting Agent Chain
Countrywide Residential Lettings – Gold
Martin & Co – Silver
Your Move – Bronze

Do you have a property to rent or need a reliable Managing agent?

Thornley Groves Residential Lettings and Property Management department have developed an enviable reputation that over 2000 landlords rely upon.

Through our network of offices we have one of the widest selections of quality homes to rent in City centre and South Manchester, we attract hundreds of enquiries every week from fully referenced reliable tenants who you would be more than happy to rent your property to.

After providing our landlords with honest and achievable advice on likely rental values and then providing our landlords with ongoing feedback, everything we do is designed to provide the best possible service to prospective tenants and ensure they find the accommodation they are looking for and fast.

Some letting agents try and claim that they have tenants that others don’t, in this day and age that’s simply not true the Internet has made sure of that.

Thornley Groves home rentals are featured on all of the major property portals including Rightmove, findaproperty, Globrix, Primelocation and Zoopla.

Tenants consider every property with every letting agent because they’re frightened of missing something, the biggest difference between letting agents is how the agent handles enquiries from tenants and that’s something every landlord should investigate before instructing a letting agent to market their property.

Do the agents you are considering have the resources, the knowledge and experience as well as the quality of staff that you want to rent your home?

Thornley Groves letting agents have a higher staff to property ratio than other agents, the team are uniformed, they know and understand their stock, they earn commission and they’re enthusiastic – they are our most important marketing tool and we choose them carefully.

We equip them with sophisticated criteria matching software, we allow them to go out and meet tenants to show them property, we don’t use part time viewing reps or rely on landlords to do all of the viewings – the more we interact with the tenant the better we’ll understand their needs.

We’re open all hours, all day every day until 9pm on a Wednesday and on a Sunday when many agents close we’re here all day – so that prospective tenants with busy lives can be taken care of.

Once you’ve let you may want to use the services of our property management department, it’s here to ensure that your tenant takes care of your property, pays the rent on time. Our property management department aims to eliminate the hassle that many landlords experience, you’ll be allocated your own property manager who’ll inspect your property during the rental, oversee any repairs and resolve any problems.

Your property manager will create inventories to ensure that the condition of your property and its contents is taken care of and nearing the end of the tenancy we’ll handle the renewal or the timely re marketing of your property to minimise any void periods, maximising the return on your investment.

You NEED a letting agent that understands tenants and how best to manage a property, 2000 landlords can’t be wrong.

So contact us now for a free no obligation rental valuation and some reliable marketing advice click http://www.thornleygroves.co.uk/valuation-request/

We’ve made sure we’re easy to find by becoming Number 1 on Google just type “Estate agents Manchester” and you’ll see Thornley Groves on top of every other estate agent.

Visit our web site and make an online enquiry or telephone your nearest office. We think you’ll notice the difference.

Now let us sell your Property !

There are clear signs of real activity in the Manchester City Centre property Market we listed a great 2 bed apartment in the MM2 development in Manchesters vibrant Northern Quarter and agreed a sale within a week for a figure close to the asking price!

With the news media focussing on repossessions and how sluggish the property market is, it’s refreshing to see that real people – owner occupiers – are able to sell their properties in the current market, and guess what, the buyers are also real people, not buy to let investors but individuals who are buying to own and occupy in the city centre.

There is no denying that prices have dropped from their peak in August 2007 but the market and prices have stabilised and we are now registering more buyers on our database looking to buy, own and occupy than at any time in the last 18 months, buyers know that prices have become more much more realistic and the great mortgage deals that are out there mean that buying a place in the city centre has never been more affordable.

The sale this week of the MM2 apartment in the Northern Quarter highlights the fact that if you have a property you want to sell in the city centre and are willing to be realistic on price, Thornley Groves have the buyers ready willing and able to buy!

If you have a property you want to sell click here http://www.thornleygroves.co.uk/valuation-request/ to arrange a free valuation and marketing advice.

See more info on MM2 http://www.homesonview.co.uk/Scripts/FullDetails.aspx?CID=THORMANC&AID=THGRTIBS&PID=TTP03520