Midlands property consultancy Innes England has been crowned the region’s Most Active Agent for the tenth consecutive year.
The firm, which has offices in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester, has scooped the top accolade in the Estates Gazette Interactive 2016 deals competition, which has been pitting firms against one another since 2001.
Innes England completed an average of more than seven deals a week last year and topped the office, industrial and investment categories.
Matthew Hannah, director and head of agency at Innes England, said: “We couldn’t be more pleased to have secured the title of Most Active Agent in the East Midlands for a record tenth consecutive year; we have an incredibly talented team and this award recognises the hard work they put in year-round.
“There is some stiff competition in the East Midlands, which makes winning this award ten years in a row even more impressive. Innes England has gone from strength to strength during that time and we are very pleased to be recognised through such a prestigious industry award.
“We have noticed a sense of continued confidence within the regional market, particularly within the office and industrial sectors.
“We have seen a number of significant pre-let deals and the return of speculative developments, with a number of attention-grabbing deals leading to a strong performance.”
The EGi deals competition is designed to establish the agents completing the largest volume of deals throughout the year. The competition is an independent survey, conducted by a research team, which covers commercial property transactions.
Throughout the East Midlands, Innes England completed more than 400 deals across the industrial, office, retail, leisure and investment sectors for its clients.
The firm was jointly responsible for the relocation of St James’s Place to the landmark Embankment House, a 19,500 sq ft office building in Nottingham’s Riverside Business Park. Innes England also oversaw the sale of 4.75 acres to Lidl in Oakham.
In Derby, Innes England disposed of Faraday and Hartley House on behalf of London & Continental Railways to the EFA – the city’s largest office transaction of the year.
The most significant transaction completed in Leicester was the pre-letting of some 190,000 sq ft of space at Leicester Distribution Park, which will provide a mixture of offices and warehousing, to a large local company.
Tim Garratt, managing director at Innes England, believes that the key to the firm’s decade of success is its in-depth knowledge of the regional market and strong skill set across the team.
He added: “We have built a fantastic team and our shift in focus away from a more traditional, geographical approach to one based on discipline-specific work streams has played a big part in our success.
“One of our core values is to be peerless and this award is testament to that.”
To win the award, Innes England completed hundreds of deals in all categories and size bands across the East Midlands in 2016.
