The launch today of Ben Property sees a new name enter the capital's residential letting market.

But though the name is new, Ben Property has direct links to two of Edinburgh's oldest, most famous and successful family business dynasties - Jenners and Ben Line.

Established in 1919, Jenners Property Department soon grew to provide a residential letting service to landlords and tenants in and around the city. The property management activity continued quietly throughout the ensuing decades until House of Fraser acquired Jenners in 2005.

The following year, management of Jenners Property was assumed by E.G. Thomson (Holdings), a private, family-owned, Edinburgh-based investment group with roots in the famous Ben Line - and launches today under the brand new identity of Ben Property.

Stuart Montgomery, Business Development Director of Ben Property, said: "Both Jenners and Ben Line share a reputation for quality, professionalism and attention to detail that they have earned and sustained over many decades.


"Yet whilst there is inherent value within, and a tremendous amount of goodwill associated with, the Jenners brand, the property firm has now reached a stage in its development where it will benefit from evolving from a well-recognised retail brand into a new, service-based sector brand - Ben Property - which sits neatly alongside the other service-based enterprises within the E.G. Thomson (Holdings) portfolio of companies."

A boutique residential letting and property management operation with a diverse property portfolio ranging from one bedroom studio flats to full townhouses and detached houses, all based within Edinburgh, Ben Property has undergone significant investment to position it to take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the current dynamics of the capital’s property market.

An entirely new management team has been put in place over the last 30 months to lead the business through to its next phase of development.

Mr Montgomery said: "Our extensive market research has identified a gap in the market for a high quality property management business – and this is the very gap that Ben Property will now fill."

In addition to Ben Property, in Edinburgh E.G. Thomson (Holdings) has interests in business and groups travel agency (Ben Lawries Travel) and property investment and, in Asia, in shipping agency and logistics. The company is also involved in private equity investment and is actively engaged in the identification, acquisition and integration of new business activities to complement its existing investment portfolio.

(GK/JM)