Connells Limited,

trading as Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market (economics), market. An early form of trade, barter, s ...

Connells Group, is a British

estate agency An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting, or management of properties and other buildings. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents are mainly engaged ...

and property services company headquartered in

Leighton Buzzard Leighton Buzzard ( ) is a market town in Bedfordshire, England, in the southwest of the county and close to the Buckinghamshire border. It lies between Aylesbury, Tring, Luton/Dunstable and Milton Keynes, near the Chiltern Hills. It is northwes ...

, and a subsidiary of

Skipton Building Society The Skipton Building Society was established in 1853 in Skipton, North Yorkshire, where it remains headquartered. It is the UK's 4th largest building society and has over 1 million members and 100 branches. Its most important subsidiary is the ...

History

In 1936 the first Connells estate agency branch was opened in Luton, Bedfordshire. Connells acquired Sequence estate agency in 2003', increasing its estate agency network to around 500 branches. In the same year, Connells acquired estate agency Sharman Quinney. In 2008 Connells Group sold its remaining 18% stake in

Rightmove Rightmove plc is a UK-based company which runs rightmove.co.uk, the UK's largest online real estate property portal. Rightmove is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History Rightmove was incorporat ...

plc. In 2010 Skipton Building Society acquired nearly 100% of Connells Group. In the same year, Connells Group acquired a major shareholding in Vibrant Energy Matters. In 2011 Connells Group acquired a shareholding in the conveyancing and remortgaging panel management services provider LMS Group. In the same year, Connells acquired independent estate agency Burchell Edwards including conveyancing firm Be Legal. In 2012 Connells acquired a 25% strategic stake in residential property fund manager, Hearthstone Investments plc. In 2014 Connells Group acquired the Peter Alan chain, which operates in south Wales, from the

Principality Building Society The Principality Building Society ( cy, Cymdeithas Adeiladu'r Principality) is a building society based in Cardiff, Wales. With assets of £10bn it is the largest building society in Wales and the sixth largest in the United Kingdom. Principali ...

for £16.4m. In 2015 Connells group acquired the Liverpool business of Farrell Heyworth an independent Estate Agent based in the North West of England. In 2015 Connells Group acquired Gascoigne Halman estate agency. In 2016 Connells Group acquired Rook Matthews Sayer estate agency. In 2021, the group purchased

Countrywide Countrywide is one of the UK's largest integrated property services group including residential property Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, surveying, a collaboration of real estate, estate agents, and Repossession#United Kingdom, corpora ...

Criticism

Connells Estate Agents have faced criticism on a number occasions of hard selling and pressuring clients to use the groups in-house mortgage services using tactics such as not allowing viewings or to place offers on properties before signing up to the in-house service. In February 2016 Connells appeared on a list of 92 companies which had in at least one instance been found to have failed to pay the minimum wage to employees. In April 2018 Connells Survey and Valuation business was named in the top 10 of UK companies with the highest

gender pay gap The gender pay gap or gender wage gap is the average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working. Women are generally found to be paid less than men. There are two distinct numbers regarding the pay gap: non-adjusted ...

References

External links

Connells Group
{{Authority control Real estate companies established in 1936 Property services companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Bedfordshire 1936 establishments in England