Lettings Agents Appointed In Lancashire and Yorkshire

The Duchy of Lancaster has appointed two firms of independent local estate agents to let and review applications for tenancies at its residential properties in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Armistead Barnett in Lancashire and Harris Shields in Yorkshire will assist the Duchy’s in-house rural team with the marketing of available properties and will assist in the pre-selection of applicants put forward to the Duchy for consideration as tenants.

Commenting on the new appointments, the Duchy’s Rural Surveyor of Lands for the North Andrew Johnson said: “The Duchy is very keen to ensure that we get the right tenant in the right property and to do that we need to look at as many interested applicants as possible. By appointing a local estate agency on each of the Surveys we gain access to up-to-date market knowledge and additional resources on the ground. This will help us to get through the pre-selection process and find the best match for our properties more quickly and will hopefully provide the would-be tenants with greater flexibility around viewing dates and times.”

The Duchy has been investing significantly in its residential portfolio in recent years and has established its own design guide and quality specification which is being rolled out across the estates as properties become vacant. In the last 24 months, the Duchy has completed around a dozen refurbishment projects in the North and a total of almost 60 nationwide.

Duchy Head of Rural Christopher Sparrow added: “The market has responded really warmly to the Duchy design guide and wherever we have a property under refurbishment we receive enquiries and expressions of interest very early on. These properties offer people a rare chance to live in a period property within a rural location – but one that has all the style, comfort and convenience of a modern family home.”