The winners on the afternoon were named by TV property expert Phil Spencer, who has hosted The ESTAS every year since its inception in 2004.
Addressing the crowd Spencer said: “You’ve had to work incredibly hard, you’ve had to adapt your businesses, you’ve had to absorb considerable costs to follow the protocols and to enable things to happen safely.
“Quite simply delivering great service has never been more challenging so The ESTAS Awards for 2021 are the most well deserved ever in their entire 18-year history!”
On the afternoon the Best Conveyancer Award went to Tolhurst Fisher in Southend on Sea. In agency there were also Grand Prix titles for Pinewood Properties in Chesterfield in Derbyshire in the tenant category and Infinity Property Solutions in Harrow for landlords. The Grand Prix gold for Best Estate Agent Office was won by Hewitt Adams based on the Wirrall in Merseyside.
In the national group categories for conveyancing there were wins for The Partnership, Boys & Maughan and AV RIllo whilst in agency there were golds for Northgate, Anthony Pepe, The Property Centre and Countrywide.
As well as regional awards The ESTAS presented ‘Best in County’ titles helping agencies and conveyancers to gain an advantage in their local areas, 146 firms were recognised for the service they deliver to their clients.
In 2022 a Best in County category will be introduced for mortgage intermediaries.
The Supplier of the Year category was won by TDS Northern Ireland, with PayProp taking the silver and bronze awarded to Agency Express. Amongst the ‘Best in Sector’ supplier winners were Homesearch for Best Instruction Generation Tool, Goodlord for Best Letting Software and ValPal for Best Valuation Tool.
Individual staff were also honoured in The ESTAS People Awards recognised outstanding individual contributions to customer service. Ten Highly Commended trophies were presented to Daniel Fielding-Smith from Tolhurst Fisher, Eamonn Hunt from TDS Northern Ireland, James Richards from Peter Morgan Financial, Jessica Hope from Northgate Billingham, Kate Kenyon-Edwards from Oakwood Homes, Kyle Nicholls from Austin & Wyatt, Louise Daly from Miles & Barr, Molly Connor from Clive Watkin, Tommy White from Harper Williams and Zoe Taylor from Assist Inventories.
Simon Brown, founder of ESTAS Group, said: “When we started we wanted to create a set of property awards which were completely pure, where winners were selected solely on customer service ratings from actual transactions.
“Eighteen years on ESTAS is now the customer review platform of choice for property professionals and the most prestigious award an agent, a conveyancer or mortgage broker can win in the property industry.”
Dan Salmons, CEO at headline partner, Coadjute added: “On behalf of the Coadjute team, warm congratulations to all the winners this year at The ESTAS. As headline partner Coadjute was delighted to see so many outstanding achievements recognised across the industry from everyone involved. It has been a real pleasure to support The ESTAS this year and we look forward to enabling the property industry to ‘work better together’ in the coming year.”
ESTAS will be back in London on 29 March next year when the first ESTAS Forum again sponsored by Coadjute will take place.
