Sanderson Lettings, Darlington: a homecoming acquisition

Some deals are strategic. A few are personal as well. The purchase of Sanderson Lettings in 2019 was both.

Sanderson Lettings was a Darlington letting agency operating in My Property Box's home town, and it carried particular significance for founder and managing director Ben Quaintrell: he had worked there for eight years after leaving university. The agency that gave him his start eventually became part of the group he went on to build.

The acquisition came a year after the group's takeover of Holt Estate Agents, which traded from a Thornaby office, and was followed in 2020 by the purchase of Richmond-based Garrison Lettings. Together these early deals laid the foundations for a run that reached six acquisitions in three years by September 2021.

For landlords and tenants on the Sanderson books, the move meant continuity of service alongside the systems and technology My Property Box had been developing since 2012. That balance — familiar local people supported by better tools behind the scenes — still shapes how the group integrates the businesses it buys. It also mattered that the buyer was a Darlington firm, so the properties stayed in the care of a team based in the same town.

Are you an agency owner wondering what a sensible succession plan might look like? We would welcome a discreet conversation about how a transition could work for you, your team and your clients.