Warwickshire land deal sees property experts Deeley and Holt follow in grandfathers footsteps

Published by

Peter Davison

Two property experts are following in the footsteps of their grandfathers after completing a deal that aims bring forward new homes in a Warwickshire village.

Eleanor Deeley, deputy managing director of Midlands-based developer the Deeley Group, has optioned on a 4.5 acre site in Long Itchington, with Lucy Quibell (née Holt), director of Holt Property, acting on behalf of the landowner.

The deal continues a rich history of the Deeley and Holt family names working together.

Eleanor’s grandfather, George Deeley, set up business in Coventry in 1936 and one year later Lucy’s grandfather Clifford Holt set up a property business in the Midlands.

A partnership developed and was carried into the next generation with Peter Deeley and David Holt working together on a range of deals across Coventry - including the establishment of the successful Binley Business Park.

Eleanor and Lucy were friends as young children and have gone from playing childhood games together to completing strategic land deals – with this first deal expected to be the start of a fruitful professional relationship, continuing the generations of doing business together.

The deal signals Deeley Group’s intention to expand its already extensive land holdings and develop the footprint of its strategic land team.

Eleanor Deeley said: “Deeley and Holt are trusted and respected names, steeped in the history of the Midlands property industry and our families have been partners on a wide range of projects over the last 85 years.

“For generations we have been doing business together and I’m delighted to be strengthening and continuing that partnership.

“We will be working closely together as Deeley Group looks to bring forward much-needed new homes for the local area on the 4.5 acre site.”

Holt Property is a specialist strategic land and property development agency based in Warwickshire.

The company is currently helping to deliver over 1,500 homes on allocated sites and over 600,000 square feet of allocated employment land and is also advising on a large number of strategic land sites which are being promoted though the planning system.

Lucy Quibell added: “Eleanor and I are the third generation of established property professional Holts and Deeleys, working on providing new homes and employment sites across Warwickshire and the West Midlands, and it is great that we are building on the relationship established by our grandfathers over 80 years’ ago.

“This is a strong site in a wonderful Warwickshire village and Holt Property look forward to working with Deeley Group on bringing it forward for development and working together on future projects.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.