Voted Best Independent Sales Office in the South East

The awards were recognised as the U.K.s most prestigious estate agent awards and were a benchmark for standards across the country.

These awards were sponsored and promoted by the Nationwide Building Society, in association with the National Association of Estate Agents, (who are the U.K.s largest professional body for estate agents and the standard bearer for the industry), for seven consecutive years during the period from 1993 to the year 2000.

The awards were in recognition of professional excellence and were based on research conducted with anyone who had bought or sold, let or rented, a residential property during each year that the awards were held. All that customers were required to do was to complete a simple questionnaire rating their estate agent on a range of factors from professionalism and quality of service to office layout and property knowledge.

The completed nominations were then researched and supported by a team of 'mystery shoppers' who assessed the performance of each estate agents office. The results were then reviewed by a panel including a Trading Standards Officer, a team from the NAEA and a team from the Nationwide Building Society.

The regional winners were invited to attend the national finals which were held at the prestigious Lanesborough Hotel, Hyde Park, London and presented by Sue Cook, consumer affairs TV Journalist and James Naughtie, Radio 4 Broadcaster.

The awards became increasingly successful as a means of promoting the highest standards of professionalism amongst estate agents nationwide and were recognised as a benchmark for standards across the industry (being the only national recognition of service in the industry). At their apex more than 750 estate agents were entered for this prestigious award and in excess of 11,000 votes were received from customers across the country.

In less than a year of being established, Clifton & Co were awarded a National Estate Agency of the Year Award for 1996 as the 'Best Independent Residential Sales Office for the South East Area' which was followed by another 'Best Independent Residential Sales Office for the South East Area' in 1998 and were again featured as finalists in 1999 prior to the cessation of the awards.

Clifton Button, Director of Clifton & Co, comments: "We see our continued success as recognition of our teams committed efforts in assisting our clients. We were nominated for the N.A.E.A. awards during our first three consecutive years of trading in which the awards were held. As a result, it has brought us closer to achieving our own personal goal - which is not to be the largest company, but to endeavour to be the best within our catchment area. The prestige of the award (considered to be the industry's top accolade), has contributed to gaining the confidence of new clients".