The celebrations may be slightly different this year, and that goes for anyone marking a landmark birthday – but we still very much wanted to celebrate and mark the achievement of Roger Coupe Estate Agents turning 30 this year.

What can you remember about 1991 (well it was the last century)?  Long before Location, Location, Location, Changing Rooms or even Grand Designs, we were establishing our business as an independent Estate Agents based in Cranleigh, and working in the surrounding villages in the Surrey Hills and West Sussex.

Helping you cast your mind back 30 years the bestselling novel of the year was The Firm by John Grisham, Arsenal were announced as Football League champions and Tottenham Hotspur won the FA Cup! In the news, the UK and France were to become connected with the breakthrough of the North rail tunnel and the first ever website was created by Tim Berners-Lee and mobile phones were the size of a brick – it was still all about the ‘pager’.

And whilst we were busy launching the business, building a strong reputation to commitment in customer service excellence and helping people with our unrivalled local knowledge Bryan Adam’s single (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, was entering its fifteenth successive week at number one in the UK singles charts setting a world record!

The property market is almost unrecognisable from 30 years ago – imagine having to wait for an agent to post you details of a property, and not being able to view the house online or check out the location on Google Street View.  The average property price in the South East in 1991 was around £88,000 compared with £450,000 today.  For those old enough to remember you may recall that interest rates were at an eyewatering 14/15% - something unthinkable today.  The good news is having continued to support people through the process of moving home through the highs and occasional lows of the last 30 years there isn’t much that can surprise us or that we can’t offer valuable advice on.  And whilst the technology used in the property market now has evolved beyond all recognition, we firmly believe that the traditional core values we have as an agent, with face-to-face contact and personal service are still paramount as they were three decades ago.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has chosen (often multiple times!) to let us help them in selling and/or buying a property, and to those who have recommended our services to others.  Our passion for property continues and our hunger to offer the best service to our clients remains at our core and our long-standing experienced team are here to help you in whatever way we can.