About the practice
A small firm, built deliberately
Eleven people, three desks, one way of working. North & Key has represented homes across the coast, the city and the country since 2009.
Our story
We started because the market had stopped listening
In 2009 the local market was full of agencies competing on volume — the same photographs, the same weekend viewings, the same optimistic guide prices. Elena Vasquez left a large agency that year with one conviction: that most sellers wanted someone to think carefully about their house, and most buyers wanted somebody to tell them the truth about it.
The practice grew slowly and on purpose. A city desk in 2013, a country desk in 2014, and a decision — still in force — to cap the number of instructions each partner carries. Today North & Key is eleven people, and every listing is represented by someone who has walked it more than once.
We are not the largest firm in the region and have no ambition to be. We would rather be the one people call before they have decided anything.
What we hold to
Four principles, applied without exception
Advice before appetite
If a sale should wait a season, we say so. Our income depends on transactions; our reputation depends on the ones we talk clients out of.
Written, not implied
Appraisals, campaign plans and offer summaries are put in writing. Nobody should have to remember what was said on a doorstep.
A limited book
We cap active instructions per partner. It is the only reliable way to keep viewings personal and responses same-day.
The long view
Most of our work comes from people we have already acted for, or the people they sent. We are structured for repeat business, not volume.
The partners
You will work with one of these three
Elena Vasquez
Founding Partner
Elena opened the first North & Key office above a bakery in Harbour Bluff in 2009, after eleven years in coastal sales. She still handles headland and waterfront instructions personally.
Marcus Ellery
Director, City Residential
Marcus leads the city desk, with a particular interest in warehouse conversions and period stock. He sat on the Alder Quarter conservation review panel for four years.
Priya Raman
Head of Country & Estates
Priya joined in 2014 from a land agency background and now runs the country desk, advising on farmhouses, smallholdings and estates across three counties.