Profile: Jonathan Morgan, Morgans

Leeds city centre has become as recognised for its skyline as it has anything else.

Earlier this year, the notoriously outspoken Jeremy Clarkson went so far as to compare Yorkshire’s largest city to New York.

But 18 years ago, it was a very different story. The apartment blocks that pepper the city’s horizon were a mere glint in their developers’ eyes.

When Jonathan Morgan opened the doors of estate agent Morgans in 1997, there were around 600 residences in the city centre.

Now, around 11,000 properties are contained in the various blocks around the city.

“The city centre was something that really appealed to me.,” Mr Morgan says. “I’d seen it in other cities, and I’d lived in Switzerland as a kid - everybody lives in apartments there.

“When we started, it was seen as a low-cost environment and a place people didn’t want to be.

“But it really interested me because I’d seen it working in other cities. It seemed common sense.”

Morgans was started around its founder’s dining table in early 1997.

Now a £2.3m-turnover business with two offices and 40 staff, Mr Morgan has played a key role in the growth of the city centre’s residential community.

Having started his property career at Headingley Estates, Mr Morgan parted company with the firm following a six-year stint.

As daunting as starting from scratch was, Mr Morgan said the Leeds business community was an important asset.

He says: “There’s an amazing support for entrepreneurial spirit here. If people reach out and say, ‘I’m thinking of starting my own business’, there’s no concern they might be a competitor.

“There’s always a really strong support base, and we really got that from so many people.”

Morgans first big break came in a matter of weeks, when it was appointed to manage the sale of 41 flats at Great George Street’s Centaur House for City Lofts.

It was one of a series of “magic moments” that put Morgans at the centre of Leeds’ development explosion.

Mr Morgan offered advice to developers for free, building relationships that would prove lucrative as the city’s skyline began to rise. “We think we’ve probably sold about 70 per cent of what was built,” he says.

Currently, Leeds less of its population in the city centre than Manchester, and about the same level of city residential as Liverpool.