The new homes market must surely be hotting up if the latest manoeuvring of key personnel among property agencies is anything to go by. The ink had hardly dried on HT Meagher O’Reilly’s sign-up to the Knight Frank franchise for Ireland when its head of new homes, David Browne, announced he was off to pastures new in Savills. Browne had been with HTMOR for seven years and only recently had been installed as its managing director of new homes. This week Savills appointed Browne as head of its New Homes department. This will fill the vacancy left by Ronan O’Driscoll last July following his surprise departure from Savills after 25 years to Sherry Fitz to look after their New Homes division.

But Knight Frank didn’t hang around long to ponder Browne’s departure, announcing a restructuring of its own this week with the appointment of Rena O’Kelly as director of its Residential division. O’Kelly has a strong reputation on the residential sales circuit and joined HTMOR seven years ago after many years with Sherry Fitz. In addition, Jackie Horan will join the residential team as associate director specialising in New Homes. Horan has years of experience in the sector, as another former Sherry Fitz-er she previously held the role there of director of new homes in 2001.

After all this activity, all they need now are the new homes to sell.