We are the only foreign-owned real estate consultancy based in St.Petersburg - and we are not part of a franchising operation.
We are Chartered Surveyors - meaning that we are owned by a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors - the international professional body created in the UK, which is the professional "home" of valuers/appraisers and other real estate experts who have passed the stringent educational and experience requirements of the Institution.
Sebastian Zinovieff FitzLyon:
a few words about the history of Zinovieff Group
I formed the firm alone in 1997 after working in St.Petersburg the previous five years and having lived the whole of my life before that in the West.
I named the Firm “S. Zinovieff & Co” in honour of our family and our name – we were well-known in St.Petersburg before the 1917 Revolution as military officers and leaders in government, and we had a family business here.
I spent those first five years in St.Petersburg before 1997, building-up a branch office of Ferguson Hollis (Chartered Surveyors), a British real estate consultancy – the first in St.Petersburg – then that firm was sold to DTZ and I ran the DTZ office which was in those days quite big, with valuation and architectural services.
Before I came to Russia in 1992, I was for many years a director of Jones Lang in Sydney in charge of city office tower management and shopping-center management. And my earlier experience included working in other real estate consultancy roles in Paris and London.
After my family left Russia in 1918 some of us used the name “FitzLyon” including myself.
Sebastian FitzLyon F.R.I.C.S. Chairman of the Board of Directors
General Director S.Zinovieff & Co. Chartered Valuation Surveyor
Australian Honorary Consul Founding member of the Society of Land Economists in Australia
Founding member of the St.Petersburg International Business Association (SPIBA)
Anna Shakhverdova Head of Valuation department Member of the Expert Committee of the National Board of Appraisers
Elena Borovko Head of the Architectural Design & Building Surveying Department
Galina Davydova Head of the Sales & Leasing Department
