Leading Northern Ireland estate agency John Minnis Estate Agents is celebrating ten years in business this month.
The company, which was founded in July 2005 in Holywood, now operates additional offices in Belfast and Donaghadee and has won numerous prestigious national awards for quality of service in both sales and residential lettings.
Speaking at the recent Tall Ships celebration where the company held its ten-year celebrations, owner John Minnis said:
“I am absolutely delighted to be here with our fantastic team today, celebrating the company’s tenth year in business.
“Back in 2005, there were just the four of us, we opened on the Fourth of July 2005, ten years ago to the day. The team grew quickly as did the property market.”
Within a couple of years of launch, the new company had exceeded all performance targets. In 2007 JMEA opened a second office in the coastal town of Donaghadee, and a Belfast branch was added in 2012. The firm covers all areas of the province focusing on south and East Belfast the North Down coast and Ards Peninsula. The team now stands at 30 staff across three offices.
Reflecting on the changes he has witnessed in the course of his company’s 10-year history, John continued: “We’ve seen important advances in technology, and we’ve harnessed the best of them to give our clients that competitive edge.
“Those developments include a John Minnis iPhone app, the launch of John Minnis TV (JMTV) online presentations providing video views and walkthroughs, drone photography, floor plans and the company’s growing use of social media to communicate with clients and potential customers.”
Thanks in part to such innovations, JMEA has made a consistently strong showing at the ESTAs, the so-called ‘property industry Oscars’. In recent years, the company has won a string of these prestigious national awards, including ‘Best Local Lettings Agency in the UK’ and ‘Best Estate Agents in Northern Ireland’.
However, Mr. Minnis himself attributes JMEA’s continuing success to old-fashioned ‘people skills’.
He continued: “At the end of the day, it comes down to relationship building and a proactive approach,” he said.
“The old adage that people buy from people has never been so true. I’m grateful for the dedication of my team, which has brought us through the deepest property recession in Northern Ireland’s history. It was hard work, but now that we’re through it feels like we’ve made huge strides, and I a proud that we are leading the market in Northern Ireland. To-date we have sold in excess of half a billion pounds of property.”
He finishes on a high note. “The two most recent reports from RICS and the Office of National Statistics confirm our team findings. It’s official – the Northern Ireland housing market is in recovery! While I don’t think we’re going to see a repeat of 2014’s stellar growth rates this year, I believe that Northern Ireland’s property market will continue to outperform the rest of the UK… and we will help our clients to make the most of the opportunities that provides.
John concluded: “I am delighted with John Minnis Estate Agent’s continued growth, and I look forward to our next ten years in business.”
