Double winners - Parker Barras achieves a prestigious industry awards brace

The hard-working staff at Parker Barras are celebrating after landing a remarkable awards double-whammy ahead of regional and national competitors.

The consistently successful Teesside-based commercial property rental and sales firm won the Estates Gazette's 2023 Most Active Dealmaker prize for both the North Yorkshire and the County Durham sectors.

Delighted Parker Barras managing director John Taylor not only believes the awards recognise how well his company performed last year but also reflect the continuing boom in business in a resurgent Teesside.

"We've just won two awards with Estates Gazette, which is a trade magazine that tracks all the deals agents complete throughout the UK," he explains.

"It means we've done more deals than any other agent in those areas - including all the national firms - and it's a testament to the hard work put in by the team and what we're delivering to our customers.

"We're an independent family firm, so we've done well," he adds. "The whole team is over the moon. We have worked very hard, so it's nice to get this kind of recognition.

"Ultimately, the team has all bought into the company's ethos of what we're doing. The customer is at the centre of everything we do and we build a strong relationship with our clients."

In simple terms, the awards mean Parker Barras is the leading dealmaker in a huge region of northern England, stretching from north Durham down to Leeds and from the North Sea coast to the Pennines.

And if 2023 was a year to remember for the company. 2024 is shaping up to be an even better 12 months, with many high-profile commercial deals in the pipeline and several exciting projects on course for completion.

Residents in the Tees Valley will witness the fruits of some of those projects with two Starbucks Drive-Thrus opening on the A66 near Darlington and another one on the Truck Road, Parker Barras has also

Riverside Park, securing three industrial unit lettings within a week.

"It's been busy so far in 2024. We've had a cracking start to the year, and I can just see it continuing," reports John. "We're not seeing the slowdown people were expecting to see.

"There has been talk in the press of negative growth and recession, but we're not seeing that at the moment. We've noticed there are more outside investors looking to buy on Teesside than there have ever been in the last 15 years.

"We understand that the economy faces challenges. We're not wearing rose-tinted glasses, but the reality is there are plenty of deals being done, there are plenty of properties being sold and there are plenty of businesses being sold.

"On the back of our Most Active Dealmaker awards I was asked to do an interview on a podcast for the Estates Gazette" adds John. "They were asking about Middlesbrough and, when I listened back to the interview, I thought, 'It's just amazing how much positive stuff is happening on Teesside."

A successful year is nothing new for Parker Barras, with the company winning Estates Gazette's Most Active Dealmaker award for North Yorkshire in 2022.

So, apart from an extremely dedicated workforce operating out of its Middlehaven HQ, what is the secret of the firm's success?

"We've invested heavily in our systems and procedures in our office over the last couple of years," answers John. "It's paid dividends in terms of what the customer journey is once they've placed a property with us and, likewise, the customer journey of someone who wants to buy or rent something off us.

"It's about being efficient and ensuring that we handle those enquiries professionally and give the best advice to the property or business owners to ensure they get the result they desire."