Lucy Morton

Spear’s Review

Lucy Morton joined JLL in 2014 after its merger with central London estate agency W.A. Ellis, before rising to her current role as head of residential. She had been one of the firm's senior partners, having originally set up W.A. Ellis’s lettings arm. 

Within the sector, Morton is known for growing one of the capital’s most successful lettings businesses from near-scratch, as well as her work to improve standards within the industry – including working with Baroness Hayter on the Property Standards Board and advocating the regulation of lettings agents. 

She is a past president of the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA) and, during her tenure, was instrumental in establishing the ARLA licensing scheme which now has over 6,000 members.

Adviser Profile

Lucy first joined the property industry with Savills in 1983 and set up their Letting department in 1985. Then moving to central London Agency, W.A.Ellis in 1990 after setting up another letting department, she became partner of the firm in 1994. In 2014 W.A.Ellis joined JLL and Lucy took over the running of the Residential Agency business in the UK. She is well-known for growing the most successful independent lettings business in the capital but also for her lobbying activity to improve the standards of the estate agency industry and advocating for the regulation of lettings agents. 

Lucy joined the ARLA council in 1990 and is a past president of the Association. She made some key changes during her tenure and was instrumental in establishing the ARLA licensing scheme which now has over 6,000 members. Lucy also became a director of NFOPP when it was formed in 2007 as the governing body for the NAEA, ARLA, ICBA (Institution of Commercial and Business Agents), and NAVA (the National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers). 

She was a founding member of the Property Standards Board and the Register of Property Agents. She is a director of CLEA and currently Chairperson (the Central London Estate Agents representative body) as the lettings representative, and Lonres, a statistics service for London estate agencies. In 2010, Lucy won the Negotiator Awards, Agency Leader of the year and also became a trustee of Agents Giving, an industry charity which focuses on local communities. In 2011 she was presented with the ‘Outstanding Contribution’ to the Lettings agency at The Times and The Sunday Times Lettings Agency of the Year Awards and 2014 saw Lucy admitted as a Fellow to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. 

More recently Lucy has been focused on growing JLL’s Residential Agency business in the UK and around the globe.