A FORMER employee of Walt Disney World has teamed up with her mother to launch a new venture in York's property market.

Charlotte Baron, who worked with the globally-renowned brand in Port Orleans for 12 months, and her mother Claire Leathley have taken on their own franchise of property management and lettings business Belvoir.

Opening in newly refurbished premises in Walmgate, the business draws upon a variety of experience from the duo's varied careers.

On her return to the UK, Charlotte completed a Business with Marketing degree at Northumbria University and went out to Jishou University in China where for ten months she taught English.

Identifying that York has a large population of Chinese students requiring rental accommodation for the duration of their studies, Charlotte has enrolled on a language course to further develop her skills in speaking Mandarin.

Charlotte was first introduced to the lettings industry through an internship with a property management company as part of her University course, and for the past two years she has been working for a local estate agent where she was the lettings negotiator.

Her mother Claire also brings industry experience having previously worked for City of York Council to set up a social letting not for profit agency, before being approached to work for one of the city's largest independent local lettings agency to manage its property maintenance department.

Belvoir’s commercial director Dorian Gonsalves, said: "It’s great to see Claire and Charlotte entering this project together. They bring valuable individual talents to this operation and join other family run businesses within the Belvoir network of over 160 franchised offices throughout the UK."