The Nottingham’s new strategic alliance with Belvoir Group will see it deliver estate agency and lettings services to its members while Belvoir franchisees will have the opportunity to operate from the society’s branches.
Belvoir Group has an established network of franchisees trading under the brands Belvoir, Northwood, Newton Fallowell and Lovelle. The alliance offers the potential for franchisees to establish operations in locations where The Nottingham doesn’t currently offer estate agency and lettings, allowing the society to extend these services to more of its members.
The partnership could, in time, also enable the Nottingham to extend its reach, creating a presence for building society services through Belvoir offices in locations it doesn’t operate in today.
CEO of The Nottingham, David Marlow, said: “After great consideration, we believe the model to be in our members’ best interest and for the long term success and sustainability of the society to deliver an estate agency and lettings proposition through an expert partner.
“We already successfully use this approach for a number of services delivered to members and the strategic alliance we are undertaking with the Belvoir Group not only provides a continuation of service to the majority of our members, but brings greater opportunities to work closely together to boost the reach of our combined national networks.”
Dorian Gonsalves, CEO of the Belvoir Group said: “This is an exciting and mutually beneficial opportunity for both companies. Similar to the Nottingham, Belvoir originated in the East Midlands, and our Central Office is still based in Grantham. Furthermore, Belvoir and The Nottingham share the same ethos of ensuring that the customer is always at the centre of everything within the business.”
The move means that most of the society’s estate agency and lettings activity will transfer over to the Belvoir Group and it will cease trading as its own estate agency and lettings operation for new business by the end of August.
The Nottingham has also taken the opportunity to review its wider branch network, with an eye on long-term sustainability and in response to changing consumer behaviour and members accessing services in different ways. Whilst branches remain a key part of its strategy, the society also believes an increasing number of people, particularly younger members, will expect greater digital access as their primary point of contact.
To that end, it plans to significantly bolster its digital savings offering in early 2021, with the capability to also extend its whole of market mortgage advice proposition digitally to attract younger members seeking an exclusive digital journey.
