Last Friday night, something shifted. As the lights dimmed and Phil Spencer stepped up to the mic at The ESTAS, announcing base as the Gold Grand Prix winner for UK Lettings (Landlords), we felt the whole room pause. So did we. For a moment, there was silence - then chaos. Hugs, high-fives, stunned smiles. The kind of moment you bottle.
For context: we’re a single-office, London-only, independent agency. And we just won the biggest letting award in the UK. Again.
This year, that meant being crowned:
• Gold Grand Prix Winner – UK’s Best Letting Agent for Landlords 🥇
• Gold – London (Landlords) 🥇
• Gold – London (Tenants) 🥇
That makes it a Double London Gold and the UK’s top spot. Not bad for a team of rebels from Shoreditch.
But here’s the truth: we never set out to win anything.
When we first conceived base back in 2003, we didn’t dream of trophies. We dreamt of building something better. An agency driven not by targets and transactions, but by service and experience - for everyone. Not just landlords. Not just tenants. Everyone.
We believed that a happy tenant leads to a happy landlord. That respect, empathy and professionalism weren’t optional. That transparency wasn’t scary. That tech could actually humanise, not dehumanise, the process.
Back then, that made us weird. Now? It makes us award-winning.
The ESTAS: A Journey, Not A Strategy
We entered The ESTAS for the first time in 2010. Not to win, but to listen. We wanted honest, verified feedback on how our clients felt - not just the loud ones, but the quiet majority. What we got was a mirror, and we used it to improve.
Two years later, we won our first award. Since then, our shelf’s had a busy time of it:
• Grand Prix Gold – 2016 & 2025
• Grand Prix Bronze (Landlords) – 2017, 2018, 2022
• Grand Prix Silver (Tenants) – 2016, 2019, 2020
• Zoopla Xcellence Gold – 2020 (highest-rated letting agent for landlords over 10 years)
But these awards were never the goal, they’re just the receipts for doing things right.
"I like to describe the ESTAS as the Oscars of our industry. There are plenty of other awards in our industry but what makes these special is that they are based on the feedback of our clients. The ones we show up for day in day out, be that landlords or tenants, the ones that make us want to do better year in year out. We always say - being a proud local boutique agent - that the London awards are what matters. However, this year the Grand Prix meant the world. We have had a rough year with all the added responsibilities piled on every agent. Add to this all the uncertainty caused by the Renters Right Bill – the biggest shake up of our industry in nearly 40 years, the feeling that we smashed it out of the park was exactly the tonic we needed." - An Deckers
A Tougher Market, A Better You
The last five years haven’t exactly been a cakewalk. A pandemic. Legislative upheaval. The Renters Reform Bill. Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard. Making Tax Digital. A London exodus... and then, an influx. Through all of this, we stuck to our roots, refined our systems, grew our team, and evolved our culture.
And most crucially - our ratings kept climbing.
This year, for the first time ever, our landlords rated us over 99%. You can't fluke that. That’s not one superstar negotiator or a slick campaign. That’s consistency. Systems. Culture. Teamwork.
There’s no silver bullet, nor any one magic idea. Just a never-ending obsession with making every touchpoint a little better.
"Winning Double London Gold and the UK Grand Prix Award at The ESTAS this year really hit differently. We’ve been through so much as an industry and as a team over the last few years, so to see our landlord satisfaction hit over 99 percent feels incredible. We never set out to be the best in the UK - we just wanted to do right by our clients and stay true to who we are - but this recognition means the world because it shows that our values, consistency and care truly matter. It’s a reminder that success isn’t about chasing awards, it’s about continually striving to be better for the people who put their trust in us every single day." - Kristjan Byfield
The Team Behind the Trophy
Let’s be clear: this award belongs to our team - our base family.
They’re the ones who keep showing up, even when the world seems to be spinning backwards. They make sure landlords feel secure and tenants feel respected. They’re the ones doing the work - and owning the win.
Working in an industry often maligned (sometimes fairly, often not), it can be hard to believe you’re one of the good guys. These awards remind us that yes, what you do does make a difference. And yes, you are the good guys.
That’s why we still enter. To benchmark ourselves. To grow. And most of all, to give our team the recognition they deserve.
So, What Now?
Well, we start again.
We’ll continue evolving - for our landlords, our residents, our team. We’ll help clients navigate the Renters Rights Act, the upcoming MTD changes, and the wave of regulation and tech reshaping our sector.
And we’ll keep doing the things that make us base: launching innovative services, questioning the norm, building the tools we wish existed. From our video-first website to our Maintenants tutorials, we’ll keep trying things that might not work - because that’s how you discover what does.
No, we never set out to win. But maybe that’s exactly why we did.
Here’s to what comes next.
– Kristjan & An
Co-Founders, base property specialists
