Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward (KFH) has embarked on a significant recruitment drive to help keep up with a sharp spike in demand for property.

The London-based agency says that the stamp duty holiday has triggered a significant increase in sales activity leaving the company needing more staff across all ten business divisions to help cope with greater demand.

Jasmin Athwal, director of talent and development at KFH, said: “KFH is an exciting company to work for at this time. We have increased our headcount to keep pace with demand, and our business performance has resulted in additional roles being created within our frontline sales teams.”

KFH has advertised 37 additional roles across the group so far in 2020, including a 17% increase in sales negotiator positions which have all been raised since June.

Athwal added: “Our focus is to hire quality talent to deliver the best possible service and results for our clients and customers. We are actively recruiting in our busy offices, and I am excited to see what is in store for the remainder of this year.”

KFH, like many agencies, had a busy period between July and September 2020.

The company’s sales division recorded an 80% increase in valuation requests and a 102% increase in instructions year-on-year with sales doubling during this time.

Lisa Mackenzie, sales director at KFH, commented: “It has been a challenging year for the industry and we have had to weather many storms. The market was in much better shape than we anticipated, and we had a virtual queue of people requesting valuations and viewings as soon as the stamp duty holiday was introduced.

“This shows that we are a trusted agent for those looking to buy and sell across London. These market levels do not come around very often, and the successes enjoyed by our sales teams has had a ripple effect on activity across all of our business divisions.”