If you own an independent estate or letting agency, the question that matters is not really what is my business worth. It is who would actually want it, and what do they want it for.
Those are different questions, and the second one drives the first. A lettings-led independent with 800 fully managed units is worth one number to a private equity-backed platform buying rent roll at scale, and a rather different number to the agency two towns over that wants your high street office. (We have set out the valuation ranges separately.) Knowing which buyer you are talking to — before you start talking — is most of the negotiation.
So here is the honest picture of the UK buyer market as it stands in August 2026: who is active, what they are actually buying, and what every deal since the start of 2025 tells you about where the money is going.
The short version
Three things have changed since 2024, and all three matter if you are thinking about an exit.
First, the buyer set has shifted. The names people assume are buying are, in several cases, not. The Property Franchise Group — which now owns Belvoir, Martin & Co, Hunters, EweMove and fourteen other brands — made no major agency acquisitions at group level in 2025. Spicerhaart announced a multi-million-pound acquisition trail back in August 2024 and has not, as far as the public record shows, completed a single named agency deal since. Meanwhile the volume is being done by capital you may not have heard of: private equity-backed platforms and one very well-funded technology business.
Second, it is the lettings book being bought, not the agency. This is the clearest pattern in the data. Lomond bought Edward Mellor’s lettings division and left the rest. Dwelly bought HC Lettings out of HoldenCopley, and AP Morgan’s lettings business without the sales side. Foxtons reports its progress to the City in tenancies, not offices. If your business is a mixed sales-and-lettings operation, you should know that several buyers will want to price the two halves separately — and that the managed book is the half they are competing for. This is the pattern we see across estate and letting agency sales week in, week out.
Third, there is real money behind it. Not sentiment, not “strategic interest” — committed capital with a deployment clock on it. That is a materially better market to sell into than the one that existed two years ago.
The buyers, one by one
Connells Group — the volume buyer
Owned by Skipton Building Society, around 1,200 offices, and comfortably the most prolific acquirer of whole independent agencies. Chris Rosindale, who leads the M&A programme, confirmed in February 2026 that the group had added thirteen businesses during 2025, alongside four standalone lettings portfolios that brought in roughly 900 managed properties.
What they buy: whole independent agencies, usually one to four offices, and separately lettings portfolios on their own. They will enter a new town to get a good business, and they typically keep the brand and the staff.
Recent deals: Ridgewater Property in Torquay (May 2025), Tylers Property Partnership across Cambridgeshire and Suffolk (September 2025), Aspire in south-west London through John D Wood (June 2025), Denny & Salmond in Malvern (February 2026), Crofts in Cleethorpes and Louth (May 2026), Bloor & Co in Sheffield (June 2026).
Worth knowing: Connells swung to a £500,000 loss in the first half of 2026, against a £28.4m profit the year before. Skipton’s chief executive put that down to subdued market conditions and a delayed Budget. It has not stopped them buying — but it is a reminder that even the largest buyers are trading in the same market you are.
Lomond — the lettings consolidator
If you own a lettings-led business, Lomond is probably the most important name on this list. Backed by ICG since December 2024 alongside existing investor LDC, the group had already made more than 65 acquisitions since 2021 and manages over 50,000 properties. ICG’s managing director described the strategy in plain terms: leading the consolidation drive in a highly fragmented market.
What they buy: lettings-led and mixed independents of all sizes, UK-wide, including the lettings arm on its own. They run a multi-brand model, so your name usually survives.
Recent deals: Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward — 60-plus branches and around 14,000 units — completed January 2025. Then Edward Mellor’s lettings division only (February 2025, ~900 units), Draker (May 2025, three offices, 700-plus units), eddisonwhite (October 2025), Prospect (January 2026, ten branches, 3,500-plus managed), Homesure Property in Liverpool (March 2026, 1,700-plus), and Clyde Property in Scotland (April 2026).
LRG (Leaders Romans Group) — the branch network buyer
Owned by American private equity firm Platinum Equity since 2022, LRG runs 300-plus branches and manages around 73,000 properties. Platinum described the business as having a high-velocity M&A programme, which is fair.
What they buy: larger multi-branch networks. Their November 2025 acquisition of Northern Estate Agencies Group brought in 36 branches across Manning Stainton, Ryder & Dutton and Mortimers in one transaction.
Worth knowing: in September 2025, Sky News reported that Platinum had appointed Rothschild to explore a sale of LRG at a valuation of up to £800m. There has been no public confirmation that this completed. If it does, it will reset expectations for what a large UK agency network is worth — and that is a number worth watching if you are timing an exit.
Dwelly — the one that has changed the market
Dwelly is an AI-native lettings business founded by Ilya Drozdov, Dan Lifshits and Dmitry Khanukov. It buys letting agencies outright and runs them on its own technology rather than licensing software to anyone.
The funding tells the story. A £69m round in February 2026 led by General Catalyst, when the business had eight acquisitions and 10,000-plus properties under management. Then, in July 2026, a further £125m — around $95m of equity co-led by EQT Growth and General Catalyst, plus a $75m debt facility from Trinity Capital. At that point they were managing roughly 15,000 properties on an annual rent roll of about £350m.
What they buy: independent letting agencies and lettings books, very often carved out of a mixed business. They advertise cash-out offers, flexible payment structures, and a built-in succession plan for owners who want to step back over time. Brands and local teams are retained; managing directors usually stay on.
Pace: nine acquisitions in 2026 by the start of August — Albery Tyson, Eden Harper in Brixton, Elliot Oliver in Cheltenham, Settio, AP Morgan’s lettings business, Shaws in Kensington and others. That is roughly one a month.
Worth knowing: Dwelly does not publish prices or multiples. If you are approached directly by a buyer who does not publish what they pay, you are negotiating without a benchmark — which is precisely the situation where knowing the wider market is worth more than knowing your own numbers.
Foxtons — the buyer who has to publish what it pays
Foxtons is listed, which means every acquisition comes with an RNS announcement and a real number attached. Almost every other buyer in this market discloses nothing, which makes Foxtons the single most useful reference point in the sector.
- Cauldwell Property Services (Milton Keynes, completed January 2026): £6.5m enterprise value plus £0.8m deferred, for a business turning over £3.1m with £0.8m operating profit.
- FleetMilne (Birmingham, January 2026): £3.2m initial, plus £0.8m deferred and up to £0.5m contingent, on £1.5m revenue.
- Haslams: £7.6m initial plus £2.4m deferred. Imagine Property Group: £5.0m initial plus £1.0m deferred.
Run the arithmetic on the two 2026 deals and both land at roughly two times revenue on the initial consideration, with Cauldwell at about eight times operating profit. Those are our calculations from Foxtons’ published figures rather than a quoted market multiple — but they are the closest thing the sector has to hard evidence, and it is worth understanding why the number lands where it does before anyone quotes you one.
The strategy is explicitly buy, build and bolt-on into regional markets with strong lettings demand. Foxtons reported £8.8m of acquisition spend in the first half of 2026 — cash out of the door, so it sits below the £9.7m of headline initial consideration for the two deals — and increased its credit facility from £40m to £50m to keep going.
Campions Group — the London aggressor
Less well known than it should be. Campions is the UK arm of French group Emeria, which bought Chestertons for £100m in October 2023. It has been one of the most active buyers in London through 2026: Aston Chase (eight offices, April 2026), Madison Brook’s residential agency (April 2026), Battersea & Nine Elms Estates (May 2026), and Drewery in Sidcup plus CKB in Sydenham and Eltham (June 2026).
If you own a London independent, this is a buyer you should have on your list.
The ones people expect — and what they are actually doing
The Property Franchise Group. Now the UK’s largest multi-brand franchisor after the Belvoir merger completed in March 2024 — 18 brands, 1,900-plus outlets, around 149,000 managed properties. But at group level it made no major agency acquisitions in 2025. Its recent buying has been in financial services and surveying, not agency. TPFG’s view on regulation is worth quoting, because it runs against the doom narrative: it does not view the incoming rules as a structural threat, believing instead that increasing complexity reinforces the value of professional management.
Where TPFG’s agency M&A actually happens is at franchisee level. Nirvair Sander, who runs Martin & Co Worcester, bought Parsons Choice in August 2026 — his third acquisition in twelve months. If you are a franchisee looking to exit, or looking to grow, that is where the activity is.
Spicerhaart. Announced an acquisition trail in August 2024, reiterated the intent in 2025 with £22.8m of cash and no debt, and has an acquisitions director in post. But no named agency deal has been publicly announced since. Stated appetite is real; completed activity is not visible.
Winkworth. Does not buy agencies itself. It runs assisted acquisitions on behalf of franchisees — its largest to date being Peter Clarke Estate Agents, folded into the Leamington Spa franchise.
Purplebricks, Strike and Nested. Not buyers. Whatever else is happening at these businesses, none of them is acquiring independent agencies.
Do not overlook the smaller buyers
The consolidators get the headlines, but a large share of agency sales are to regional operators and ambitious independents. Dawsons bought Willow Estate Agents in Llanelli at the end of 2025. Andrews Property Group acquired HomeLets Bath, pushing its managed portfolio past 5,500. Jefferies London bought Grange London in July 2026.
And there is a funding route that did not exist eighteen months ago: in October 2025 the franchisor Sourced launched 100% funding for its franchisees to acquire letting agencies — no security required, no set-up fee, the franchise fee repayable over five years. Their chief executive claimed it as a UK first. Practically, it means a category of buyer who previously could not raise the money now can.
For a seller, this matters more than it sounds. A local buyer with funding behind them will sometimes beat a consolidator on price, because they are buying a business they already understand and can see synergies a spreadsheet cannot.
What all of this means if you are thinking of selling
Your lettings book is the asset. Every serious buyer above is competing for managed income. Sales income is welcome; it is not what sets the price. If you have twelve to twenty-four months before you sell, the single highest-return thing you can do is grow and clean up the managed portfolio. We have written separately on how lettings books are valued.
Beware the single approach. The most common way owners leave money behind is accepting the first credible offer from a buyer who found them. Each of the buyers above has a different reason to want your business and a different ceiling. A process with three interested parties is not a marginally better outcome than a process with one — it is a categorically different one. That is the whole reason to run a proper process when you sell your estate agency.
Multiples are not a substitute for a valuation. Atomic Consultancy publishes guidance of one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half times annual fees for well-run, fully managed lettings portfolios, and you will see that range repeated widely. Adam J Walker, whose lettings valuation model draws on nearly 700 completed agency transactions over more than 30 years, argues persuasively that blanket turnover multiples are too crude to be useful — two businesses with identical turnover can differ in value by 100% or more, because managed income, let-only income and landlord admin fees are worth very different amounts. He is right. Our valuation tool separates income types for exactly this reason.
Timing is doing something unusual right now. Business Asset Disposal Relief has risen from 10% to 14% to 18% as of 6 April 2026. The Autumn Budget lands on 28 October 2026. Meanwhile the Renters’ Rights Act’s main provisions commenced on 1 May 2026, the mandatory PRS Database is coming later this year, and BTG’s Red Flag Alert recorded 7,719 property firms in critical financial distress at the end of March 2026 — up 19.1% year on year. Some owners will sell because they want to. Others will sell because compliance has stopped being worth the margin. Buyers know the difference, and they price it.
How we can help
The Acquisitions Group Team has acquired 156+ businesses in five years, and we hold a vetted database of over 5,000 buyers and sellers. We represent either the buyer or the seller on a transaction — never both sides of the same deal, so there is no question about whose interests we are protecting.
If you would like to know what your agency is worth and, more usefully, which of the buyers above would want it, start with a free confidential valuation. No obligation, and nothing gets said to anyone until you decide it should.
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Last updated 11 August 2026. Deal information is drawn from public announcements, trade press and company filings as listed below. Prices are only stated where publicly disclosed. Nothing here is tax or financial advice — speak to your accountant about your own position.
Sources
Property Industry Eye · Letting Agent Today · Estate Agent Today · The Negotiator · PropertyWire · Connells Group · Lomond · LRG · Dwelly · Foxtons Group RNS (Investegate) · The Property Franchise Group RNS · Platinum Equity · Adam J Walker & Associates · NRLA · GOV.UK · Propertymark · BTG Red Flag Alert