BOURNE Estate Agents has celebrated its tenth anniversary since opening in Farnham.

The estate agency opened in February 2009 and now has seven branches across Surrey and Hampshire, in Alton, Petersfield, Godalming, Guildford, Woking and Esher, as well as its original Downing Street Farnham branch.

The business got off to a shaky start though, as explained by Adrian Cannon, director of the Farnham branch.

“When we started it was just the founder, Stuart Mitchell, his wife, and me,” Adrian told the Herald. “We actually started from his house while we were refurbishing the office. The ‘office’ was his dining room table. That’s how Bourne began.

“We had just had the worst snow in many, many years, and we were still trying to open. We were working out of the dining room table for about six weeks.”

Bourne Estate Agents has been a staple of Farnham house-hunters and owners ever since – and a good measure of its success is the number of repeat customers on the firm’s books.

Adrian added: “In the last ten years, we’ve bought and sold to certain families three times over. We have had a lot of long serving, satisfied clients.

“It’s because of that, that our business just grew and grew. We have sold thousands of homes in the last ten years.”

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Bourne held a large party for staff across all of its offices. In addition, to show its appreciation to clients, the firm invited past, present and potential future customers to its office in Farnham for drinks and nibbles to celebrate.

“We recognised a lot of families and past clients. In fact, I saw a couple of people that were here on our opening ten years ago,” Adrian said.

“A lot of past customers came in, just to say hello.”

Bourne has expanded several times, but Adrian insists the team is still as tightly knit and personal as it was when they started.

He continued: “Given that we have got an experienced loyal team that have been with us for seven to ten years we find that this gives us the edge over other estate agents in Farnham, and makes us even more personal now than when we started.”

Of course, there were tougher times as the organisation developed – starting with the challenges presented by an increasingly volatile housing market over the past decade.

“The market is difficult at the moment, its testing, but its not impossible. We’ve had different economic climates,” said Adrian.

“There’s been a lot more multi-development in Farnham over the past three or four years. A lot more houses are being built, gates are being opened everywhere.

“It’ll be a good thing for the town I think.”

The next challenge will be coping with the country’s impending departure from the European Union but as ever Adrian is optimistic for the future.

“We expect the market to be very similar post-Brexit, not much will change,” he added.

“Possibly more people will start making decisions post-Brexit, but this year has started as busy as ever, with more people viewing than ever before.

“If anything Brexit is and will provide Bourne Estate Agents with more opportunities to expand and to our ever growing network.”

Bourne Estate Agents can be found at 29 Downing Street, Farnham.

The team can also be reached via the website bourneestateagents.com.