New property manager appointed

Principle Estate Management has appointed an experienced property manager to look after some of its larger and more complex developments.

Stephen Downing’s new role was created after the number of developments the Birmingham-based company manages across the country reached more than 200.

Mr Downing is Principle’s third recruit of 2020 and takes the company’s staff numbers up to 21, including three consultants. He has nearly 14 years multidisciplinary experience in the property sector, including his most recent role as a property manager at HML PM Ltd.

Brett Williams, managing director of Principle, said: “Stephen was the stand-out candidate for this role with exactly the right attitude coupled with a good skillset. His knowledge and experience will really suit the portfolio we are allocating to him, and we’re delighted to have him on board.

“Stephen will work closely with myself and director Joe Jobson on some of the properties we have brought into management over the last three months and which we have been looking after ourselves whilst they settled into management and we recruited.

“His role will be to look after large, complex and what might be termed ‘needy’ properties in our portfolio, often those we have inherited from other agents where there is a backlog of issues to resolve and that need some tender loving care.”

Mr Downing’s other experience includes working as a senior estate manager at Galbraith Property Services and as a facilities and contracts manager at Regalty Estates.

He said: “Principle’s growing reputation in the sector was attractive to me and I was pleased to instantly accept the opportunity to join them. Most importantly I was impressed with Principle’s customer service ethics which is often lacking in our sector.

“I can see that Principle aims to do property management properly and to deliver a distinguished service to their expanding client portfolio, which very much lines up with my own attitude, and their use of the latest technology is very impressive.

“They are working the Qube system hard in the back-office functions, on the site surveys app, and their portal allows customers to pay by card online and to quickly and easily access other facilities, a service not offered by most others.

“I am looking forward to getting stuck in and using my experience with managing some of the more complicated and demanding properties, whilst gaining more knowledge from Brett and Joe, which in turn will help to develop my career.”

Principle Estate Management was launched in 2018 by Mr Williams, the former head of residential property management at CPBigwood in Birmingham, and a past-chairman of ARMA. The company is based at Cornwall House in Lionel Street, Birmingham, and offers a national property management service.