William Pears Group is one of Britain's largest property companies, with £6 billion of property in London and south-east England. The William Pears Group was founded in 1952, by Bernard Pears (who changed his name from Schleicher on emigrating from Austria) and his son Clive Pears. It is run by Mark Pears with his younger brothers

Trevor Trevor ( Trefor in the Welsh language) is a common given name or surname of Welsh origin. It is an habitational name, deriving from the Welsh ''tre(f)'', meaning "homestead", or "settlement" and ''fawr'', meaning "large, big". The Cornish la ...

and David. According to ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', Mark Pears is a director of 212 companies, a "complex labyrinth of operating and investment companies", but won't say which is the main

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

or what the group's annual profit is. William Pears Group owns 3 – 4,000 London freehold residential properties, including large areas of

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...

. In 2009, William Pears Group paid £750 million to

Land Securities Land Securities Group plc is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is ...

, to buy

Telereal Trillium Telereal Trillium Ltd is a commercial property management, development and investment company, headquartered in central London, England. The company is privately owned by the Bernard Pears 1967 Trust and its management. Preference shares are held ...

, a commercial

property management Property management is the operation, control, maintenance, and oversight of real estate and physical property. This can include residential, commercial, and land real estate. Management indicates the need for real estate to be cared for and monit ...

and investment company. In April 2013, William Pears Group bought

The Spires Shopping Centre The Spires Barnet is a shopping centre in Chipping Barnet, north London, England. It is located in the centre of the town, on the High Street, and incorporates the twin spires of the former High Barnet Methodist Church which stood on the site un ...

in Barnet, London, from the bank UBS for a reported £34 million. The Spires has since been bought by the Canadian investment fund AIMco. Through Pears Global, they have "up to 6,200 apartments" in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, managed through a series of " letterbox companies". In 2019, a collaboration of investigative journalists in Germany, headed by

Correctiv The CORRECTIV (or CORRECT!V) is a German nonprofit investigative journalism newsroom whose stated goal is "to give citizens access to information." With about 20 staff members, CORRECT!V is the only nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative center ...

, tracked down the ownership of about 25 companies with property in Berlin to six firms in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, who belong to two firms on

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

, who belong to two firms on the

British Virgin Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = Territorial song , song = " Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands" , image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg , map_caption = , mapsize = 290px , image_map2 = Bri ...

, who the journalists concluded to be controlled by the William Pears Group. The Pears brothers have invested in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

as well, through the purchase of $147 million of at least 344 unsold condominium and

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

units in mostly 1980s-era cooperatives and one rental building, according to PincusCo Media. The acquisitions began as early as 2011 and the most recent was in June 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:William Pears Group Real estate companies established in 1952 Property companies based in London 1952 establishments in England Pears family

See also

References