Wavensmere Homes Makes a Strategic Appointment to its Sales Department
Birmingham-headquartered regeneration specialist Wavensmere Homes has appointed Olivia Smith into the newly created role of Private Client Relationship Manager. Olivia will be responsible for nurturing the award-winning housebuilder’s customer sales relationships, with £1bn of new homes due to be launched, or in planning.
Olivia Smith, 26, joins Wavensmere Homes from Derby-based Ashley Adams Estate Agents, where she was based for close to four years, having been promoted into the role of Sales Account Manager. Previously, Miss Smith was a New Homes Sales Negotiator for Spicer Haart. She transitioned into a new homes sales role with the national estate agency brand in 2019, having commenced her career as a Senior Lettings Negotiator for Connells Estate Agents, based in Lichfield.
Wavensmere Homes is constructing three major urban regeneration schemes, located in central Birmingham, Derby city centre, and Ipswich, and has five further projects in the immediate pipeline. The business and its associated special purpose vehicles (SPVs) completed 522 houses and apartments during 2023, achieving a turnover of £100m for its financial year, ending 31st December. 500 homes are being delivered this year, which will result in a 2024 turnover of £115m.
Established in 2015, the firm specifically targets large, complex sites with unique history and character. The team is defying the unprecedented challenges encountered by the housebuilding industry through the strength of its brownfield landbank and construction deliverability.
Olivia has sold our homes at consecutive developments across the Midlands during the past five years. While working for us indirectly, she has been a great company ambassador and understands our ethos and vision.
James Dickens, Managing Director for Wavensmere Homes
During Olivia’s career to date, she has sold over 300 new houses and apartments. While doing so, she has grown her own investor platform, establishing and maintaining relationships with purchasers that loyally follow her from site to site.
We have structured this newly created role around Olivia’s skillset, as she has a strong appreciation of the importance of client relationships. Her commitment to meeting individual requirements and investment goals underpins Wavensmere’s customer journey, but by selling via a third-party agent, there is a risk this can be diluted. Olivia’s timely appointment will enable us to take a more strategic approach to the sales launches for our upcoming developments.
A handful of Wavensmere Homes’ development projects are in the national spotlight, including Derby’s historic Friar Gate Goods Yard – a prime 11.5-acre city centre site. The badly fire damaged Victorian buildings were last occupied over 50 years ago and the firm has recently secured planning committee approval for its £75m plans to reanimate the two Grade II listed landmarks into over 110,000 sq ft of commercial space, alongside 276 new homes.
The vacant site of a demolished 1960s police station is another within Derby city centre where Wavensmere Homes plans to deliver 195 well-specified homes. The Cathedral One site occupies one of the final plots of development land within the city’s newly revitalised Cathedral Quarter.
In Cheltenham town centre, the North Place surface car park is another prime site where the firm has submitted plans to deliver 153 much-needed houses and apartments.
The detailed plans for the 17.5-acre Wolverhampton Canalside South site were unveiled at the recent UKREiiF event, with a pre-application public consultation exercise running until 28th June. As one of the largest city centre residential development opportunities in the Midlands, the £150m mixed-use regeneration plans is set to ignite a new wave of city living.
I am delighted to be joining such a dynamic housebuilding business that is leading the way nationally for the delivery of new homes on brownfield land. The consequential ripple effect Wavensmere’s transformational projects have on the wider area are enabling investors to reap much higher returns than other comparative residential investments.
Olivia Smith, Private Client Relationship Manager for Wavensmere Homes
Despite the challenges the industry has faced, it has been a joy to see how the Wavensmere brand has accrued a loyal following over recent years. This is testament to the build quality, value for money, customer care, and the dedication and significant investment to placemaking and provision of on-site community amenities. I am excited to take the leap to an in-house role and take on the responsibility for working with Wavensmere’s existing database of 500 committed investors.
At the 2023 Insider East Midlands Property Dinner, Wavensmere Homes was crowned Residential Developer of the Year. The firm has been shortlisted in six coveted categories for the 2024 Insider Midlands Residential Property Awards, including Housebuilder of the Year and Urban and City Living Developer of the Year.
