Douglas Haig

Managing Director

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Douglas is the Managing Director of Seraph Property Management and the Seraph Group.  He launched Seraph Property Management in 2009 which was spun from a previous full service sales lettings and management company so that it can focus on doing property management the way it should be done.  He has a passion for improving the Private Rented Sector and has taken on many roles to push this forwards.

With Scottish heritage, raised in Southampton, educated in Durham and worked in London and Edinburgh, he now calls South Wales his home.  He studied to PhD. level in Astrophysics at Cardiff University before deciding his true fate was in property.

He became a landlord in 2001 and raising investment from friends to expand his portfolio (crowd funding before it became popular) he began managing other people’s properties in 2007, frustrated about poor management he had received from other companies.  His drive to improve the image of the market meant him becoming more active in the community and was asked to stand as the Chair of the Cardiff Landlord Forum in 2008.  In this role he has involved with Cardiff Council on various panels advising and representing the private rented sector and also runs a bi-monthly meeting which nearly 100 landlords attend getting their views and also holding them to educate landlords in the changing sector.

Douglas was asked in 2011 to join the board of directors as the Director for Wales of the RLA (Residential Landlords Association).  He has been a key stakeholder in representing landlords at Welsh Government and UK Government level having appeared before the Committee a number of times.  In recognition of his work in Wales, he was appointed Vice-Chairman of the RLA in 2013 and continues to fight for landlords and drive education to push up standards. Douglas still remains in this role since the merger forming the NRLA which now represents over 80,000 landlords.

He is regularly asked to attend public speaking events on regulation in the PRS, private and institutional investment across all tenures and is also regularly asked for comment and quoted in the news and current affairs programmes and articles.

All this is reflected in how he runs his companies, pushing for improved standards of service to landlords and tenants and using technology on how to get higher standards whilst keeping things cost-effective.

Douglas is a perfectionist and very competitive, it is advisable not to play Monopoly with him or ten-pin bowling!  When not at Seraph Property Management you will find him cheering /commiserating the Scottish Rugby team.