Halls of Ellesmere has reported good growth in 2017 and to cope with growing demand has just recruited a new member of staff.

Joining the team in at the company’s Ellesmere office is Olivia Walker who will work with Jo Amos in the sales department.

Olivia joins the business as a sales assistant. She was previously at Wem Playmates, a day nursery in Wem and is looking forward to the change in career.

There are further changes to support growth in the lettings department which see Aimee Davies take on the challenge of lettings portfolio manager. Aimee said: "I am looking forward to expanding our lettings portfolio and working with our lettings manager Gemma Smart.

"I have watched the department expand since I joined the company and I plan to help it expand further in 2018."

The Ellesmere office now employs eight staff who have 75 years experience between them.

Manager Jon Quinn, who runs the office alongside Halls director Allen Gittins, said: "We opened the lettings office and expanded the sales office around 6 years ago.

"Since then we have continued to grow which is a great achievement for the whole team. We are optimistic about the local property market, prices are holding well and we are confident that this further expansion of the team will mean that we can provide an even better service to our clients."

According to internet property giant Rightmove, the average price of a property coming on to the market in January was up by nearly £2,000 compared with December, but sales were down by 5.5 per cent on the same period a year ago.

Rightmove, which tracks 90 per cent of the UK property market, reported there had been a “busy start” to 2018 with more than 4 million visits a day to its site, up nearly a tenth on last year. The average price was up 0.7 per cent to £297,587.