1991 was a memorable year for many reasons:-
- The Dow Jones reached 3000 for the first time in History!
- Silence of the Lambs, and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves were amongst the highest grossing films of the year, and who can forget the Bryan Adams theme song?
- The average house price was less than £80000!
- Petrol was 50p a litre
- Freddie Mercury sadly passed away
- And finally – it was the year that the World Wide Web started! Invented by Tim Berners-Lee, the first website went live, and it was a website dedicated to showing how you could use the WWW! Who would have known!
Of course the most memorable of all the events in 1991 – the one we look upon most fondly, is the fact that it was the start of Kings Group, who are now celebrating 30 years as a leading all encompassing property business.
Like many of today’s most recognisable brands, it started from humble beginnings – Apple started in a garage in California, Marks and Spencer started as a penny bazaar in a market, and McDonalds was a small burger restaurant somewhere in America!
The first branch of Kings Estate Agents came from an idea, shared by two local entrepreneurs, Karl Knipe and Thomas Paine, to open an office in Silver Street in Enfield Town. Without any real experience of running a business, they shared a common belief in themselves, loads of enthusiasm, and pure determination to succeed! And in hindsight, this formula proved to be a winning mentality!
30 years ago, there was no Wi Fi, Iphones, Netflix, you had to go to Blockbusters, and the only reference you would find to Bluetooth was that he was a Danish King who tried to broker peace between nations! And as for online Estate Agents, well it was a telephone, an index card system, and a local handyman who put the boards up!
In the time that has passed, Kings Estate Agents have become Kings Group, one of the largest independent property groups in the UK! This has not been an easy journey by any means. In that time there has been 3 recessions, the Credit Crunch of 2008, and of course the latest bump in the road – a global pandemic!
None of that matters if you are committed to what you set out to do, and that is to deliver the best service to help people realise their dreams. To never give up is the only way to make this happen!
Kings Group now comprises:-
- Kings Estate Agents – with offices across North and East London, Essex and Hertfordshire
- Kings Lettings – covering all the same areas, and one of the leading Lettings businesses in the area
- Kings Property Management – providing support and assistance to over 1500 landlords and their properties.
- Kings Financial Services – with in house Advisers helping clients to not only finance their property purchase, but protect it as well!
- Metropolis Surveyors – established in 2005, and seen as one of the most recognisable survey and valuation companies – nationally! With over 20 Industry Awards, and working with most of the leading banks and lenders in the UK!
- Thomas Oliver – a Financial Services business with qualified advisors dealing with every aspect of property finance, investments and Insurance.
- Temple Chambers – providing bespoke ancillary property services including EPC’s and Floor Plans to clients
- Kings Franchising – a business created to let like minded people run their own estate agents with the backing of an established brand!
Looking back over the years, Karl and Thomas said, “Well we feel really proud on what we have done in this time. It hasn’t always been easy, but we are lucky we have a great team who all share the same ethics we do. Its about never giving up, and always trying to be the best we can, at what we do! So all in all its not a bad achievement!”
Kings may not have not grown like the World Wide Web in that time to almost 2 Billion websites, but they have literally helped thousands of clients buy, finance, protect, rent, let or invest in property and that is something that should be celebrated!
Winston Churchill said, “Success is not final, failure in not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts!”
So Happy Anniversary to us, and here’s to the next 30 years!
