ludlowthompson celebrates turning 30

August 1993. In the UK, Living on My Own by Freddie Mercury was number one in the music charts. It was the year that local Brixton-born John Major was Prime Minister while in the US, Bill Clinton was six months into the first year of his presidency. It was also the year that ludlowthompson was founded.

As we celebrate our big 30 this week (our birthday is on 18th August and balloons and cake are welcome) we felt it was only right to share some of the key moments for our company, as well as a look back at the state of the housing market at the time.

The housing market in 1993 and the formation of ludlowthompson lettings

1993 was a tough year for house prices following the 1989 housing market crash. The average house price was £121,348 – not much higher than a decade before. But at this point we weren’t as focused on sales. Instead, ludlowthompson was initially founded as a lettings business in response to the introduction of the Assured Shorthold legislation that itself had been launched to provide easily accessible private rented accommodation in the wake of the 1990’s recession. The idea was that it would help underpin labour mobility and assist in rebuilding the economy – a dynamic that remains true today as 2023 faces its own economic challenges.

The business was founded by me, Stephen Ludlow, my partner David Thompson, and his late father Harry. Harry was a Chartered Surveyor and David and I both graduates of the Royal College of Estate Management & later Imperial College Business School. From a startup base of two offices, we have now conducted more than 50,000 tenancies across London, and we work for a range of landlords, including Clarence Mighty who was an early pioneer of Buy to Let and has been with us since day one of our 30-year journey.

The introduction of ludlowthompson sales

It wasn’t ’til the introduction of Buy to Let Mortgages in the late 1990s that we made the shift to sales to complement our lettings business. We were the first to market high-yielding properties, such as former local authority flats, as Buy to Let investment opportunities.

In 2015 we evolved again, with the sales proposition being rebranded and further professionalised beyond just our previous focus on investment and first-time buyer sales into becoming a destination agent in all our local marketplaces. We’re proud to say we successfully completed more than £125 million worth of property sales in 2022/23.

Supporting our staff and the local community

As we have successfully grown, however, we’ve ensured we support both our staff to whom we are most grateful and our wider community too. We initially achieved Investors in People accreditation in 1998, just five years after our launch. Since 2012, we have retained the Investors in People Gold standard of accreditation – an accolade held by only 5% of UK companies – thanks to our long-term staff relationships supporting long-term client relationships. We are proud to say that many of our colleagues have grown with the company and been promoted within, achieving along the way sponsored academic and industry standard qualifications ranging from MBAs, Business Studies Degrees, ACA and NFOPP qualifications.

But community is also important. We have officially supported Centrepoint charity since 2004, helping to support London’s young homeless, and since 1996 have raised more than £207,555 for the charity. That has been through a combination of fundraisers including 10K runs, sweepstakes, football tournaments and sleepouts. This shows the dedication of our staff to go the extra mile, not only for their clients but also for London’s young homeless. And we’ve had some great laughs along the way.

The future

We are extremely honoured and proud to celebrate our 30th year in 2023 and look forward to providing opportunities for our exemplary colleagues and good governance for our loyal and extensive customer base through delivering Maximum Performance, Communication & Trust for their future property needs.