Principle wins contract from one of Birmingham’s top property agents

Ms Fleet-Milne is chief executive of the well-known and widely respected FleetMilne estate and letting agency, which owns three of the apartments at Queensway House.

When the property’s freehold became available to purchase, the leaseholders wanted to purchase it and Principle advised them on who to use for a specialist valuation. 

The purchase has now gone ahead and the new freeholders, trading as Queensway House Residents Management Company Ltd, immediately contracted Principle to look after the property.

Ms Fleet-Milne, a director of Queensway House Residents Management Company, said: “We had received input from Principle prior to our acquisition of the freehold which was appreciated.

“As a new board of directors, we decided to formally tender the management of Queensway House inviting several companies to put their management proposals to us, and Principle won the contract.

“We overlap with Principle on a number of city centre developments where they manage the buildings and we sell apartments for the original developer or subsequent owners, also letting and managing apartments in those buildings.

“There is mutual respect between our businesses and we have a good working relationship, always focussing on what is right for our mutual customers.”

Queensway House was an office-to-residential development by Elevate Property Group around four years ago which turned each floor of a redundant office building into a triple aspect apartment with views of the city centre and Jewellery quarter.

The apartments are generously sized from 1,535 sq ft plus terraces to a 2,236 sq ft duplex, and all are fitted with bespoke German kitchens complete with Siemens appliances, Kahrs engineering floors, Duravit sanitary fittings and Hansgrohe brassware.

Brett Williams, managing director of Principle, said: “We were pleased that our initial input regarding the acquisition of the freehold proved useful to the leaseholders and to learn that it was nearing completion.

“As usual, we inspected the property and provided a copy of our site inspection report produced on our tailored app which links directly to Qube, our property management software. We also included our comments for areas of improvement to the building.

“We were delighted to hear that the purchase of the freehold has been completed and that we have been selected by the board to take on the management of the development with immediate effect.

“We always enjoy adding developments in the Jewellery Quarter to our portfolio of buildings that we manage.

“It is where Principle was born and remains based having moved to larger offices recently, and it’s great to be working with our local community which is such an important part of the Jewellery Quarter culture.”

Mr Williams, a past-chairman of the Association of Residential Managing Agents who has nearly 30 years of experience in the sector, launched Principle in 2018.

The has since grown from what was virtually a one-man band into what is now 28 staff looking after a portfolio approaching 6,500 units in around 250 developments across the UK.