ReGlasgow

LETTINGS Boss Goes Full Circle As Business Expands Into Offices Where Career Started

4 November, 2020 | News

FAST-growing Glasgow firm Newton Lettings has secured a lease on bigger premises to cope with the rise in demand for rental properties the city and other parts of the Central Belt.

And by coincidence, the company’s new base in Elderslie Street is within the same block of offices where managing director Riccardo Giovanacci first started working in the letting industry.

Mr Giovanacci acquired Newton Lettings, the part of his family’s long-established business, Newton Property Management, last year.

He said: “Our move to new premises in the Charing Cross area of the city has been prompted by two things: first, we are expanding quickly and plan to hire more staff, so we need more space.

“Second, our former owner, Newton Property Management, is also on the growth path, having recently acquired a long-established factoring business in Ayrshire, so needs more of its office space to accommodate its new staff.

“We have been happily based at its Port Dundas Road offices since our buyout last year, but now is definitely the right time to move, so it is a case of successful expansion all round.

“Oddly enough, our new premises are where I originally got my first taste for the letting game.”

That was during a work experience stint with O’Neill Letting, his uncle Stephen O’Neill’s original letting company. Mr O’Neill started Newton Property Management in 2001, after successfully selling-off his first letting business, O’Neill Property, and remains joint managing director.

Mr Giovanacci’s grandfather, William O’Neill, had worked in the industry since the 1950s, running one of Glasgow’s first estate agents in the city’s West End.

Mr Giovanacci continued: “It’s strange being back here [Elderslie Street] now that time has moved on, but also somehow rather inspiring.

“The look of our new premises has been changed radically, mainly due to [interior design firm] Luxe Casa, owned and operated by Jonny Kelly, who have transformed the old place into the coolest office in Charing Cross, if not the entire city centre. We’ve fitted an espresso bar to the main reception area for clients and tenants.”

On the current Glasgow house letting market, Mr Giovanacci said that his business has seen brisk demand from prospective tenants ever since the lockdown effects of Covid-19 eased off in early summer.

“This year has seen a surge in enquiries from tenants which, in turn, has helped to boost prices. We continue to grow organically by around 10 per cent and look continually to increase that year on year.

“Our portfolio stands currently at just over 600 units let and managed on behalf of around 390 landlords and we have invested consistently in extra staff and technology since the buyout to enable us to provide a better service to our clients.

“The new premises at Elderslie Street gives us the capacity to hire more first-class property experts to help us achieve our ambition of becoming one of Glasgow’s, and Scotland’s, larger letting agents”.

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