Douglas and Gordon named as the Supreme Estate Agent in the United Kingdom at the Negotiator Awards 2009

The Negotiator Magazine (the leading magazine for estate agents) holds an industry awards ceremony every year at the Park Lane Hilton.

The award ceremony’s leading sponsors were The Daily Mail’s Digital Property Group (Primelocation and Find a Property).

At this year’s awards for the first time ever there was an award for the most admired Estate Agency in the United Kingdom.  Unlike other awards, which estate agents have to enter (a process that only a small percentage of agents do and some devoting more time than others) for this Supreme award every estate agent in the country was eligible.

The short list was decided by a panel of fifty of the Industry’s leading practitioners which made up The Negotiator Awards Academy.  Each was asked to rank their three best performing UK agents, based on a range of criteria in which they believe the firm have excelled over the last twelve months.  These included good business performance, excellent leadership, adaptability to the current market and innovation.  Firms were awarded points for each vote, depending on whether it was a first, second or third recommendation, and these scores have determined their position in the league table for this newly created category, The Supreme Negotiator Award.

The Supreme Estate Agent was chosen from a short list which included Marsh & Parsons, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Savills, Knight Frank, Chesterton Humberts, Greene & Co, Newmans, Connells, Strutt & Parker and Douglas & Gordon.

Ivor Dickinson  (pictured, second from left) managing director of Douglas & Gordon, says: “D&G are different to your average estate agent, whether it be our culture, our marketing, the people we employ, our approach to service or something as simple as refusing to send junk mail.  There are times when you do push boundaries, when you question the status quo, that you wonder if it is all worthwhile.  To receive this award is the clearest possible message that it is.  Daring to be different, caring more about the service of D&G than profit, does eventually pay.  The standard of estate agency throughout the country is now higher than it has ever been in my 23 years with D&G.  So to be acknowledged by our peers from such an esteemed short list is hugely gratifying and something all of us at Douglas & Gordon are very proud of.”

More than 430 guests gathered in the glamorous ballroom at London’s prestigious Hilton Hotel on Park Lane to celebrate the excellence of each of the 16 award winners.  In addition, The Negotiator presented a special Lifetime Achievement Award to Bill McClintock for his services to estate agency, particularly for his instrumental role at the Property Ombudsman Service.