About the Group

Our Businesses

The provision of life assurance, estate agency and related financial services are foundations of the Group’s business and fundamental to its success. The fortunes of some Group companies are not so directly dependent upon the residential property market, although the common themes for Group operations are either property or financial services. Each of the Group’s subsidiaries has its own Board of Directors and is able to operate with a high degree of autonomy, while benefiting from the support, security and stability of the Group.

The Estate Agency and Financial Services Divisions both serve the property and financial needs of a retail customer base; in other words, individuals who are buying or selling a house or who require mortgage, insurance or other financial advice.

The fifty three estate agency subsidiaries are regionally based throughout the UK. Most of them have been established for many decades and many are acknowledged as market leaders with an expert local knowledge of the residential property market.

The link between the Estate Agency Division and the Financial Services Division is very important. Mortgage Consultants are integral to the estate agency branch team and arrange mortgage and protection packages for house purchasing customers.

Countrywide Insurance Services provides customers access to insurance products, to compliment their mortgage arrangements. Countrywide Mortgage Services processes competitive mortgage products from major lenders and assists the Group’s mortgage consultants in making financial arrangements for their customers. The Financial Services Division comprises Countrywide Estate Agents FS Limited, Countrywide Principal Services (encompassing Mortgage Services and Insurance Services) and Slater Hogg Mortgages Limited.

In 1994 the Nationwide lettings operations and the existing Group’s letting and property management business were merged under the banner of Countrywide Residential Lettings. In recognition of the growing importance of the lettings market to the Group’s clients, a separate Lettings Division was created in 2007 to encompass the Group’s national and London based lettings and property management companies.

To extend the range of services, available to our buyers and sellers, the Group launched the Conveyancing Division in 1997. Countrywide Property Lawyers operates from three Centres: Manchester, Cardiff and Northampton and has become the Country’s leading conveyancer of private residential property, employing over 450 staff. The Group acquired Title Absolute at the beginning of 2005, to expand our conveyancing panel management service.

Countrywide Surveyors was formed in 1988 and is now the largest independent surveying and valuation company in the UK offering an electronic instruction and reporting system to al main lenders and a variety of surveying products to the general public. In October 2004 the Group acquired Securemove Property Services from Bradford & Bingley and the division now employs more than 800 qualified surveyors.