EweMove franchise agents now number 108 with revenue ...

EweMove, the online brand owned by the Property Franchise Group, now has 108 franchisees - 97 are fully operational and 11 are preparing to launch.

A quarterly trading update from the Property Franchise Group says EweMove’s revenue is up 14 per cent.

It still remains to be seen how EweMove will develop within the Property Franchise Group, formerly known as Martin & Co. It is only nine months ago the Martin & Co purchased the online service for £15m.

EweMove’s two founders, David Laycock and Glenn Ackroyd, formally leave the Property Franchise Group at the end of next month; they are believed to be taking with them £8m - £5m cash and £3m in shares - although they are believed to be walking away from the £7m promised in the two-year earn-out that was included in the deal.

EweMove is one of six brands within the Property Franchise Group, which describes itself as the UK’s largest property franchisor.

Trading performance for the whole group over the first quarter saw like for like revenue increasing four per cent. A growth in lettings of seven per cent was offset by a fall in sales of 19 per cent over the same period last year - in that period there had been a rush to complete transactions ahead of stamp duty surcharge.

“We have not seen any evidence that landlords are disposing of stock in increasing numbers. Our traditional brands have in excess of 400 more properties to let than at the end of Q1 2016, and the tenanted managed portfolio across the whole Group is up from 48,000 at year end to 49,000 at the end of Q1 2017” says Ian Wilson, chief executive officer of the Property Franchise Group.

“Against this backdrop, we remain confident of delivering a performance in line with market expectations for 2017” he adds.