The great and good of the property world turned out in force last night for the annual Estates Gazette awards at London’s Hilton hotel on Park Lane.

The awards served as a pre-Christmas celebration of the market as a record capacity crowd of guests celebrated the winners of the night, which this year had moved to December to allow the awards to properly gauge performance over as much of the year as possible.

Estates Gazette editor Damian Wild took to the stage to reflect on “a year although feeling long had flown by”. He said the year had demanded “innovation, flexibility and determination” and certainly the spirit of the room reflected his sentiments.

It was the turn of comic Marcus Brigstocke to host the awards which ran through usual rollcall of accolades for property advisors and property companies of the year across the different sectors – including retail, leisure, industrial and distribution and offices. However awards such as Young Property Professional of the Year and Business Launch of the Year – won by John Maddison of British Land and Dowley Turner Real Estate respectively, provided perfect illustrations of the continuing innovation within the world of property in 2011.

Of course however prestigious the sector awards are in their own right it’s the headline, national  awards that everyone is really hoping to win. This year the prestigious accolades went to Land Securities  for National Property Company of the Year and to Savills Commercial for National Property Adviser of the Year.

But no agent would exist without the retail, leisure or office customers that their clients serve and to this end it was Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants who were recognised as Occupier of the Year and also scooped the Estates Gazette Front Cover Award.

And there were dual awards too for Westfield who as well as winning the Property Company of the Year in the retail sector also scooped the Outstanding Contribution to Property award thanks to the opening of its Westfield Stratford development earlier this year.

The winners in full:

Property Adviser of the Year – retail: Cushman & Wakefield

Property Company of the Year – retail: Westfield

Property Adviser of the Year – leisure: Christie + Co

Property Company of the Year – leisure: Marston’s

Property Adviser of the Year – industrial and distribution: Jones Lang LaSalle

Property Company for the Year – industrial and distribution: SEGRO

Property Adviser of the Year – offices: CBRE

Property Company of the Year – offices: Derwent London

Young Property Professional of the Year: John Maddison, British Land

Sustainability Initiative of the year: The Crown Estate, Quadrant 3

IPD UK Property Investment House of the Year: Grosvenor Fund Management

Business Launch of the year: Dowley Turner Real Estate

Occupier of the year: Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants

National Property Company of the Year: Land Securities Group

National Property adviser of the year: Savills Commercial

Estates Gazette Front Cover Award: Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants

Outstanding Contribution to Property: Westfield, UK