Last week we attended the Estate Agency Awards seminar and lunch sponsored by The Times and The Sunday Times. We were delighted to be awarded the winners of the 'Best Medium Estate Agency in London', even better to be recognised as the 'Best Medium UK Estate Agency', but to be awarded the "Overall Winners" of all agencies in the UK, was overwhelming!

The awards are the longest running and most sought after and prestigious in our industry, and I was proud to be recognised for our staff retention levels, our recruitment processes and the way we motivate our people to get the best results for our clients. Particularly pleasing, was to know that the judges had 'mystery shopped' our offices to make an informed assessment.

According to the judges, we won the award on the strength of our "visionary and hands on leadership", our "second to none training programme", and our "particularly impressive sales culture".

In their final analysis, the judging panel said, "With a history dating back over 150 years, Marsh & Parsons has certainly demonstrated staying power through not one but several downturns.  With the dynamism of its business model one could be forgiven for expecting a certain level of service as standard, however Marsh & Parsons simply astonish at every turn with their excellent business focus and attention to detail."

Marsh & Parsons was also recognised for being an “early adopter of social media tools”, acknowledging in particular, our expert commentary and blogs, which leads me perfectly to introducing my next video blog.

This is my seventh video blog since March 2009, and I hope it captures the essence of the 2010 property market. More importantly though, I talk about how I see the market evolving in 2011.

Click here to listen to my blog, and as always, I would love to hear your views and comments.