Meet the Managing Director

Lee Watts jointly founded Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward in 1977 and now runs one of the most successful and fastest growing property services companies in London.

He is often quoted in the media on events in the property market and issues facing the industry. We had a chat with him about the world of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, past, present and future. View the interview with Lee online now.

When did you start in the estate agency world?

I originally trained as an accountant, but decided to go into property. I started working for a housing association, managing bricks and mortar and it was here that I met Philip King. We decided to set up our
own business and in 1977 we formed Kinleigh Ltd (the trading name of KFH).

What was the company like in 1977?

When Philip King and I set up the company we were a property management business. We had a small office in Brixton where we managed 95 flats.

You have been quoted saying that your staff are ‘nice people who are good at getting on with each other’. What is the Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward culture?

It is surprising really as we’re quite a large company now, over 500 people across eight divisions, but it feels much smaller as we have a family style culture.

A clear thread through every division is the positive attitude that our people share. At every level of our business, we look for people with character, ambition and a positive approach – we’re a people business so this is key.

How does the Completely London branding and magazine represent KFH?

Completely London means three things: it’s the complete range of property services we offer; it reinforces KFH as an integral part of the London landscape and it shows that we have complete knowledge of the Capital and the local property market.

Completely London magazine has also been a great success, and we were delighted to win four International Publishing Awards after only three issues in 2010.

What is your vision for KFH over the next five years?

Over the past 30 years we have been growing and expanding the company and we definitely have no plans to slow this growth. However we are always careful to ensure that we grow at the right speed and at the right time.

In the next five years we plan to open between 20 and 25 new branches. These will provide links to our current network of branches in north and north west London and also we are looking at expanding into east London.

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