Ward & Co. Company History

Ward & Co was established in 2003 by Andrew Ward and Gill Elmore, both of whom came to the business with considerable experience of the property and finance sectors. Andrew – our current managing director – had previously worked in the leisure industry, spending the last twelve years at director level, working primarily on operations and property acquisitions. Gill, who has since retired from the company, had enjoyed a distinguished career in the banking sector and brought vital financial administration expertise.

We initially worked only in the business-to-business market, helping companies that wished to secure suitable properties for their own investment portfolios and investment houses that wished to pass them on to their private clients. Our careful attention to detail and rigour in the due diligence process won swift acclaim and within 18 months of launching, staff numbers had grown and we had already helped our customers to purchase more than a thousand investment properties.

Gradually, however, we began to attract enquiries from private investors. Some were former clients of our own corporate customers who wanted more information about  their investment options and felt that they were not receiving the support they needed.  Increasingly, private investors asked us whether they could buy their next property through Ward & Co, and in response, we introduced our own customer support section. This required considerable investment in terms of recruitment, training and new facilities but the decision proved to be a good one and our growth continued steadily.

Since the latter part of 2009, when property investment conditions at last became much more favourable, we have returned to the business of identifying and evaluating opportunities for new investment. Over the years, our sphere of operations has increased from Mediterranean Europe to many other EU member states and from there to the Far East, the Middle East and, most recently, key markets within the United States of America.

In 2007, however, the global economy began to move towards recession. Recognising the new uncertainty in the market, we immediately ceased recommending new investment opportunities to our clients. Between 2007 and the early part of 2009, we focused entirely on helping customers to manage their existing portfolios and assisting other investors who had run into trouble by investing in off-plan projects that were ultimately never built. By presenting them with alternative investment opportunities in the form of ready-built – and  significantly discounted – properties, Ward & Co enabled British investors to save literally millions of Euros in lost deposits.