In depth knowledge of the city has been essential in establishing Mark Brearley and his team as one of Bradford’s leading lights in the property market.
After 25 years in business, and with a team that has a multitude of experiences behind them, Mark Brearley and Company prides itself on being the go-to operation for commercial property in Bradford.
Mark had worked for Eddisons in Bradford for the previous 10 years when, in April 1994, he and wife Jane decided to set up on their own in a small office in Eldon Place, Bradford.
Since then, the company has grown and has been involved in many of the biggest property deals in the district.
Now employing eight staff, and with links forged with Woodheads property management company in 2004, key clients over the years include KeyLand Developments Ltd (Yorkshire Water’s development arm); Prudential Assurance Ltd; Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc; Mi7 Developments Ltd; Caddick Group; Bradford Council; Bradford District NHS Care Trust; Bradford & Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust, and Bradford LIFT.
Mark says when he started the company up, he was fortunate to have a lot of good contacts due to his experience.
Mark Brearley
“Having worked in Bradford for 10 years I had a lot of connections and already knew a lot of people, so we actually started with some very good clients, some very nice instructions immediately. We then went through a period of just the two of us getting the business established and after a couple of years we brought in some staff.”
The company moved from Eldon Place to its current location in Park View Court, Shipley, after about seven years, and a couple of years later, the tie-up with Woodhead was agreed, with Mark becoming a director of Woodhead with Stuart Illingworth, adding property management to the range of services they offer.
Mark said although they cover large parts of West and North Yorkshire, and some areas of South Yorkshire, the company was very much Bradford orientated.
“We are very much accepted as being the Bradford agency you come to if you want something dealing with here,” he said.
“We’re happy to be identified like that. We are very proud of the city. We’ve been here a long time. We’ve sold three major city centre buildings in the last couple of years. We’ve sold two major sites. We’ve been involved in some very interesting multi-million pound deals.”
“People come to us because of the Bradford experience. We understand the city, we understand the values, we understand how it all works.”
One of those deals was the iconic Wool Exchange building. “We sold that last year. That was a fantastic building to deal with, if nothing else because it looks so good,” Mark said.
The company has also recently sold Broadway House, Skorex House and the City Exchange, which is being converted into apartments, and have the Drummond Mill site under offer.
But he said that they were also involved in business elsewhere, with a small office in Leeds, and instructions in places including Harrogate, Ilkley, Skipton, and Huddersfield.
Asked about Bradford’s ongoing resurgence, Mark said things were definitely on the up.
“Bradford has been through its darkest hour when the shopping centre wasn’t there and had a large effect on the city centre; the market was bad at the time and that made things even worse,” he said.
“The Broadway is there now and there’s quite a lot of new operations coming in. There’s lots of things happening at the Kirkgate Centre with TJ Hughes and Boyes opening, and what Bradford Council is doing on Darley Street is fantastic.
There are also the Odeon plans. There’s lots of good news stories and a lot of money coming in, and I think in five years time, we will see a significant difference.”
The residential market in the city centre was being buoyed by some great conversions of existing buildings.
“The new conversions are all high quality and they are letting extremely well.”
“Retail is still difficult but that’s not just Bradford, that’s everywhere. That’s going to be challenging, but I think the Council has got its head into that now.
“But the industrial market is as strong as you like. We haven’t enough product. There is so much demand for industrial units both to let and for sale, but mainly for sale. Prices are very, very strong, like they are in most of West Yorkshire.”
He said there was also an issue of supply of office space. He said the long-awaited construction of the planned office development at One City Park would be a huge boost for the sector.
“One City Park would be fantastic. It’s a case of bringing confidence into the city with somebody making a good statement, and by going in there and putting up a new building that is what we would get, and others would follow,” he said.
