As Allan McNish the 3 times winner of Le Mans once said: ‘It is hard to be number one, and it is even harder to stay there because everyone is trying to knock you off the top’. The same is true in the UK lettings industry- an industry that has, and is going through enormous change due to both legislation & technical innovation.

For that reason, and so many others, it was incredibly humbling on 20^th April to see our agency, base property specialists, walk away with one of the top 3 UK lettings awards for the 3^rd consecutive year at The Estate & Letting Agent Awards or ESTAS as they are better known. In 2016 we were astounded to take the Gold UK award as the best lettings office for Landlords and in the next 2 years have followed this up with 2 consecutive Bronze Awards. With so many incredible agents in the room, working hard to deliver the best service day after day, the complexity of this challenge has been highlighted by the fact that no other letting agent has repeated a UK award in the last 3 years.

All in all, on the day, we walked away with 3 awards:

Gold- East London- Lettings for Landlords

Silver- East London- Lettings for Tenants

Bronze- UK Lettings Branch for Landlords

In an industry beset with poor reputation in the media but full of hidden heroes these awards mean so much. The fact that, day after day, year after year, we continue to delight our Landlords time and time again is down to 2 key things: the outstanding commitment of our staff (or ‘base family’ as we prefer to be known) and our constant commitment to continually evolve & improve.

As the saying goes- if you’re standing still you’re going backwards! This is more true now, in lettings, than at any time before. Constant evolution, innovation and commitment are key if, as an agent, you are not just going to meet, but exceed, your clients’ expectations.

We had an amazing day at the awards, surrounded by the great & the good of our industry with everyone vying for the big wins but championing each other’s successes- a proud occasion to be part of given the immense competition in play.

Some fun was added to the occasion with Co-Founder Kristjan Byfield raising £1500 from staff, landlords, suppliers & competitors for Centrepoint UK by attending the glamorous 1,000 person event dressed as a Viking (after a few people foolishly dared him)! Something, he has made clear, he will not be repeating (he was a little hot in all that fur)!

Little did we know, however, that our awards had not quite finished as, on 8^th May, we attended the inaugural UKPA (UK PropTech Association) PropTech Awards in Islington. A far more informal event attended by a couple of hundred people from across property (residential & commercial) as well as a host of PropTech suppliers we were delighted & amazed to see base win the award for ‘Technology Adoption in Property – Residential’

It was great to see base recognised as one of the true digital innovators of our industry as tech has, and will continue to, play a huge part of our innovation and service. Every year we are looking for new ways and products that enable us to deliver a market leading experience to all of our consumers- landlords, tenants, sellers and buyers alike.

So, if you are a London Landlord looking for one of the UK’s finest, most consistent, most technologically enhanced offerings maybe it is time you contacted base to see what our award-winning ‘family’ can do for you?