Five minutes with Sophie Danes

What does a head of property management do?

My job is to lead the lettings management team of 63 people and to ensure that the KFH lettings management operation is compliant, efficient and delivering brilliant customer service. We manage over 4,500 properties and aim to provide the best service in London.

I work to create the best possible environment for the success of my staff, providing clear processes, targets and incentives so the team can thrive. The department has been through quite a lot of growth since I joined.

Can you summarise the services KFH provides?

All of our lettings branches offer a ‘fully managed service’. So when a landlord chooses this option, KFH is there to manage deposits, collect rent and adhere to any legal obligations or safety requirements. As a property management department, we offer maintenance, caretaking and compliance.

A big part of what we do is property maintenance. Tenants contact us with any issues, and we are available 24/7. We carefully triage each case either by exploring a quick fix or instructing one of our approved and trusted contractors to sort the problem out.

We always make sure that the work is done properly and for a good price, and both the landlord and tenant are always kept informed throughout the process. We also deal with refurbishments, cleaning and preparing the property for the next let.

Why should you consider using property management?

Choosing to use property management is a bit like taking out an insurance policy – you might not need us from one month to the next, but when something happens, we've got the expertise, the support and the workforce to make sure the 400+ pieces of legislation that govern the letting of properties are adhered to and that any maintenance work is done properly, efficiently and safely.

Managed tenancies also tend to last longer and are more likely to renew, as they remove the stress of liaising directly with tenants or needing to deal with any day-to-day upkeep of a rental property.

What changes have been implemented and how has the team grown?

Well, we listened to feedback from our clients and our customers, and we realised that we had to make some changes.

Since I started, we have changed the way the whole team operates; how we hire people, how we reward them, how we recognise them, and how we prioritise our workload. And it's really worked. The feedback we're getting now is that 89% of our customers have given us between an 8 to 10 rating out of 10 for our service.

The KFH managed portfolio has grown by 15% (that’s 700 properties!) since I joined in 2020, and the team has grown by nine staff. It’s grown because we give a brilliant service and we're good at what we do.

It’s a saturated and competitive market, and I’m proud of this expansion and I hope we continue on this trajectory.  

Tell us more about you and the journey you’ve taken into property management.

I did a degree in geography at Bristol in the early 90s and left university without any kind of direction. I stumbled into the university accommodation department, which is where I got the property bug. After a short stint as an administrator and then a lettings negotiator, I quickly realised property management was for me and moved back to London in 1999.

It was here that I joined John D Wood & Co. in Chelsea, where I was head of property management for 11 years. I then moved over to a boutique agency called EA Shaw, which was bought by CBRE, for six years.

Since then, I have been at Knight Frank for three years, and I spent two years in the build to rent sector. I then joined KFH in October 2020 – nearly four years ago!

Finally, what do you get up to in your spare time?

I don’t have any spare time! My wife and I have a two year old son, who is busy learning his way in the world. I feel privileged to be in a position to work and be a parent.  On most (dry and warmish) days I cycle 20 miles to and from work, which is my hobby for now.