Sherry Fitz buys into Belfast estate agency

Sherry FitzGerald ambitions to go countrywide took a step forward yesterday when it acquired a 20 per cent stake in one of Belfast's most successful estate agents, McCombe Pierce & Partners. The price paid, £600,000 sterling (approximately £750,000 Irish pounds), puts an overall value of £3 million sterling on the northern company. The move comes only weeks after Sherry Fitz lashed out £2.8 million on acquiring Cork firm Burton Crowley & O'Flynn, consolidating its position at either end of the country. Not content with these two offices, they are ploughing ahead with their expansion elsewhere in the country with a target of 60 franchises by year end. Sherry Fitz is by no means the first Dublin agency to pitch for Belfast business. Hamilton Osborne King, Colliers Jackson-Stops, Richard Ellis Gunne and new homes specialists Hooke & MacDonald are already running successful operations there. Meanwhile, Lisney has been in the wee north for a quarter of a century.