A Deeside-based estate agent has won gold for best Flintshire estate agent at the British Property Awards.

The team at The Big Estate Agency, on Brook Road in Shotton, were considered to have performed outstandingly throughout the extensive judging period, which focused on customer service levels.

They have now been shortlisted for a number of national awards, which will be announced later in the year.

The Big Estate Agency managing director, Paul Pedder, from Connah's Quay, said: "It's great recognition for the team, to come out top from 22 agents across Flintshire.

"It's customer service based, including how we handle any enquiries about properties and our knowledge of the local area.

"You can tell people your photos are good, show them what you do but to be officially recognised for our customer service is fantastic.

"It can be a really stressful process. It's about taking pressure of the people selling a property, offering support.

"For us it's all about our relationship with the vendor who is selling the property, and the buyers.

"To tell people our customer service is second to none is one thing but to now be able to back it up, is amazing."

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Like many others, The Big Estate Agency, which has been in Shotton since 2018, saw a shift in business when the pandemic hit.

They spent several months focussing on making sure tenants were ok, helping where they could with any rent issues, including rent reductions or payment plans for furloughed tenants.

Paul, 40, added: "After a couple of months we were lucky, as the property market was one of the things the government prioritised, to help kickstart the economy.

"Then it went crazy. We were very lucky we were only hit for a couple of months. We've been able to progress quite nicely as a business."

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The British Property Awards provide agents throughout the UK with an invaluable opportunity to compare the service that they provide against the service provided by their local, regional and national competition.

Agents who go that extra mile and provide outstanding levels of customer service are rewarded with our accolade, which acts as a beacon to highlight these attributes to their local marketplace.

The team personally mystery shops every estate agent against a set of 25 criteria to obtain a balanced overview of their customer service levels.

Robert McLean, from The British Property Awards, said: “If an agent has been attributed with one of our awards, it is simply down to the fantastic customer service levels that they have demonstrated across a prolonged period of time.

"Winning agents should be proud that their customer service levels provide a benchmark for their local, regional and national competition."