Three hundred and fifty Young Norwood (YN) supporters attended Norwood’s 19th annual YN Property Awards Dinner at The Londoner Hotel on Thursday night as Norwood supporters and property professionals gathered to make connections and celebrate some of the year’s outstanding achievements for the industry. Norwood’s future leaders embraced the opportunity to hear about the charity’s impact at first-hand, raising over £150,000 for Norwood’s work supporting neurodivergent children and their families and people with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
The evening was made possible thanks to lead event sponsors General Projects and Whitepaper, with the pre-dinner reception sponsored by Patron Capital. The awards were introduced by Norwood Honorary Life President and founder of Young Norwood David Ereira, Founding Director of Ereira Mendoza, who sat on the awards judging panel alongside Keith Breslauer, Jacob Loftus, Rachel Miller, Lisa Ronson, Debra Yudolph and Mark Pollack.
Among those recognised were Property Lawyer of the Year Bradley Stylianou of SMB, for combining technical ability and commercial judgement to guide clients through a broad range of complex and high-value property transactions – in a category sponsored by Assersons; Residential Agent of the Year Declan Selbo of Knight Frank, in an award presented by Lisa Ronson of GMR Capital; and the highly-contested One to Watch category, which recognised three standout individuals – Ryan Smith of Topland Group, Jack Davis of The Acquisition Group and Daisy Spanbok of Park Lord.
One of the evening’s highlights saw guest speaker, entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Lloyd Dorfman take to the stage to share some insights and wisdom gained from his extensive career in business, in conversation with YN Property Awards judge and Founder and CEO of Lead Event Sponsors General Projects Jacob Loftus.
Elsewhere, the evening’s fundraising appeal film was introduced by Sam Taylor, whose sister Leah is supported in Norwood adult accommodation and appears in the film alongside his family. Describing the challenges of growing up with Leah, who is severely learning disabled, and non-verbal, with limited understanding, he said: “In retrospect, I realise how important Leah’s diagnosis has been in shaping me as an adult and informing my life’s choices. I don’t know if I would have been the same person without having the experience of being her brother. Leah taught me to have compassion and empathy, which makes me a better professional and a better person.”
“When we were young, my relationship with Leah was intense – the lows were really low and the highs were really high, there was nothing in between. But we were also really close, as I think siblings often are when one has a severe learning disability,” he added.
The evening also featured a competitive auction, sponsored by Down Farmer Architects and hosted by Andrew Brown, Director of Auctions at Strettons.
It costs £32m a year to run Norwood’s life-enhancing services, of which £12m must be raised from voluntary donations. This funds our Jewish cultural and health and wellbeing support, as well as the majority of our children and family provision.
