Philip Ryan, the chairman and managing director of Sheffield-based JF Finnegan, was crowned Property Personality of the Year at the Insider South Yorkshire Property Gala Dinner 2009.
The prestigious event, held at the Mercure St Paul's Hotel in Sheffield, attracted an audience of 150 people and provided a chance for the region's property community to celebrate some of the excellent work that is still ongoing in South Yorkshire despite the economic climate.
Asked about the state of the property market, Ryan said: "This is the fourth recession I've worked through so I'm fairly well practised at it. The significant feature about this one is how quickly we have gone into recession and the blow to the banking sector. We need events like this where people go out and we talk ourselves out of recession."
Meanwhile, David Curtis, the Homes & Communities Agencies (HCA) regional director for Yorkshire and Humber region, said the HCA was committed to supporting regional developers that were struggling because of the continued lack of finance.
In a keynote speech, he said: "We will invest significantly in South Yorkshire. The single conversation will be our most important business process; our key goal is to make a difference on the ground while we are responding to the downturn."
Curtis outlined a number of schemes designed to get the market moving again including an £85m investment to provide affordable housing, £468m to help local authorities achieve the Decent Homes Standard and £97m to support housing market renewal.
Date: Thu 9th July, 2009
Venue: Mercure St Paul's Hotel, Sheffield S1 2JE
Number of Guests Attended: 150