Ray White Group's tireless pursuit of leadership excellence

HAVING been owned and led for the last 117 years by the White family, there is no doubt that growth is at the very core of Australasia’s largest property group.

In the calendar year of 2019, some of the best real estate businesses across Australia and New Zealand decided to join Ray White.

There were 141 new franchise agreements signed in the year to December 2019 at Ray White, which includes 81 franchise renewals, to keep the total office network at over 1,000 internationally.

Ray White is driven by the relentless pursuit of leadership excellence across Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, and measures its performance on the quality of leadership it attracts and retains each year.

Ray White Group Managing Director Dan White (pictured above) said despite a challenging year in some markets, the group was expected to sell and manage more real estate this year than last.

“This result is testament to the quality of leadership right across the group, giving the company the unique ability ‘to sail best in light winds’,” Mr White said.

“If you were to believe the headlines at the beginning of the year, you would be forgiven for thinking we were in for a shocking time.

“I’m proud of the way our members adjusted to the challenges of the market. A combination of resilience and focus on delivering quality service that recognised the reality of a tougher market, ensured that our momentum continued during the year.

“Not only did we take those challenges head-on, but we actually recorded our best ever month in November, leading us to have healthy optimism as we move into 2020.

“Our ability to attract and develop young leadership talent future-proofs us, and that’s been evident in how we’ve turned this year around.”

There were three new offices opened in the region the business refers to as New South Wales Blue – essentially the blue-chip network which services the premium suburbs of Sydney.

There was also a significant business change in Woollahra where Gavin Rubinstein, a number one salesperson in the Ray White Group for the past six years, opened Ray White TRG.

Mr Rubinstein had been part of the leading Ray White Double Bay office for the past nine years.

“Gavin Rubenstein choosing to stay with our brand, despite everyone believing he was set to open his own boutique business, once again shows our strength in inner Sydney,” said Ray White NSW CEO Jason Andrew (pictured above).

“Gavin is vehement in his belief that a super-agent working with a superbrand cannot be beaten. He’s now solely focused on his ultimate goal; having the number one agents working within his business, having the number one office, and being the number one principal.

“Charles Touma, Nic Krasnostein and Matt Carvalho all joined us from a very strong boutique business, which has assisted in realigning the perception of our offering in the market.

“Scores of people had previously defected brands to join boutiques, but coming back the other way was uncommon. Their success under the Ray White banner in 2019 demonstrates the depth of service the brand now offers.

“Some challenges amongst our competitors throughout New South Wales has created a huge year ahead for our state year in terms of recruitment.

“We approach this with the classic White family mentality - always the hunter, never hunted.”

“It’s great to see that with the most comprehensive franchise offering in the marketplace, we’re able to entice people away from their old brand,” said Ray White NSW CEO Andrew McCulloch (pictured above).

“Kellyville and Carnes Hill both joined us from other brands and we saw the expansion of Brighton Le Sands, with their second office opening in Ramsgate Beach.

“We had two internal mergers with Mt Druitt taking over the old Hassall Grove office and merging the two businesses into a brand-new, larger Mt Druitt office. Campsie also acquired the Homebush business and pulled it into their newly-fitted Campsie site.

“2020 is looking extremely positive with three live applications running for the greater Hills District, a new office currently being fitted out in Liverpool and talk of multiple offices in The Blue Mountains.

“We also have strong interest in the South Coast, Newcastle and Port Stephens. We aim to add 15 new offices across NSW in 2020.”

In an exciting step for Ray White Queensland, two of the network’s best regarded and top business owners expanded from their established markets in New Farm and Spring Hill across the Brisbane River.

Ray White New Farm owners Matt Lancashire and Haesley Cush, together with two of their top agents from New Farm Scott Darwon and Brandon Wortley, now also trade as Ray White Bulimba and Ray White East Brisbane to service the vibrant inner city riverside community.

“In a nutshell, 2019 has been a year that has taught us that growth is a necessity, and only when we embrace that are there any benefits,” said Ray White QLD CEO Tony Warland (pictured above).

“There isn’t a highlight I can single out, but when you look at our Queensland businesses, there’s one clear theme.

“That’s when people within Ray White, either through succession or an existing Ray White business, simply carry on with the ongoing success and values we all hold so close to our heart when being Ray White members and leaders.

“More leadership is the definition of growth, and this creates retention because it's not simply on a count basis, it's on a value proposition.”

Ray White also welcomed five new businesses in Victoria, with Narre Warren South, Horsham, Ararat, Kyneton and Tatura joining the family.

“It's been a challenging year for the Victorian real estate market, much like other markets across the country,” said Ray White Victoria and Tasmania CEO Stephen Dullens (pictured above).

“Our group has worked tirelessly on the training and development of our people and businesses to ensure that they’re powered with the knowledge and skills to make the most of the opportunities which presented themselves at the start of 2019.

“As the year comes to an end we’re seeing signs of the market recovering with Ray White Victoria and Tasmania's second-best month ever for the month of November.

“We're in a strong position and ready to take advantage of all the growth opportunities that come our way throughout 2020.”

It is a similar story in South Australia, with the state now boasting 53 offices and having growth ambitions for the year ahead.

“The 2019 calendar year has been successful yet again for South Australia,” said Ray White SA/NT CEO Matthew Lindblom (pictured above).

“Our ambition now is to grow our market share in SA beyond 20 per cent and our new business owners are such an important part of this growth.

“Our momentum in SA is beyond what we've seen before, as evidenced by our personal best for unconditional sales value in November 2019.

“We have an innovation network of hard-working members in Ray White who have a wealth of experience and are proud to be the market leaders.

“2019 has been a strong year, however with the opportunities we have on the horizon, 2020 is shaping up to be even more successful

“We started the year with two very experienced, successful Ray White agents, Sam Doman and Tahlia Gabrielli deciding to move forward with the next stage of their careers and open their own offices, Ray White Tea Tree Gully and Ray White Mt Gambier.

“The second half of the year has been equally successful with Nici Godwin and Nathan Fry, leading agents from the South Coast, opening their Ray White Goolwa/Victor Harbor office.

“Daniel and Megan Eramiha, from the Eyre Peninsula also made a move to business ownership, starting up their Ray White franchise at Ceduna/Streaky Bay.

“Mark O'Meagher and Bree Christie just bought Ray White Clare Valley from Dan and Geoff Schell, who sold the business so they could focus on their Ray White Rural SA franchise.

“Justin Kurenda recently joined Adam Keane and Matt Dickinson's long-established business, and have since relocated to open the Ray White Glenelg flagship office.”

Whilst the WA market continued to challenge the industry, Ray White’s share of the market grew again by 1.7 per cent on the previous twelve months, making the WA network the fastest growing market for the group.

Ray White WA CEO Mark Whiteman (pictured above) said he was pleased with the growth but felt there were significant gains yet to be achieved.

“We were pleased with our growth in 2019 which was underpinned by key recruits in past years now starting to really add volume to the group’s performance,” Mr Whiteman said.

“Vivien Yap’s two businesses, along with Jody Fewster and Deborah Brady’s business, have reshaped our business in the lucrative Western Suburbs where our data suggests we are now the market leader.

“Following up these recruits was always going to be vital and we’re delighted that the Ray White Inner North team chose to join the network.

“Matt Seabrook, Simon Pigliardo and Arash Kalani lead a strong growing business in the Inner Northern Suburbs from North Perth. Strong across both sales and property management, they’ve moved rapidly to market leader with more growth to come.

Other additions for the group came in the form of Ray White Kalgoorlie, where Leah Quince opened her own agency earlier this year as well as the reopening of Ray White Fremantle with new business owners Brett and Julia Oliver, Candice Geiles and Rob Crawford.

“Our new Fremantle business is a wonderful combination of Ray White and our sister company Loan Market, offering the community of Fremantle and surrounds a unique depth in services,” he said.

“A number of key sales people chose Ray White to take their careers to the next level. These included Jennifer Lowe, Chris Storey, Brent Morfesse, Matt Kalos, Josh Sutherland, Helen Bond and Chris Hall, to name a few.

“We continue to chase our potential with more growth ahead in 2020.”

The Ray White network in New Zealand now stands at 177 offices, after adding 10 news offices in 2019.

“In addition to this, there were 18 renewals of our existing network members. This was built on the back of strong recruitment in 2018 with the Austar Group joining Ray White throughout West Auckland,” said Ray White NZ Chief Executive Carey Smith (pictured above).

“The additional offices have added to an already strong market share which now stands at 19.5 per cent. Further to this, the company manages close to 18,000 properties in the property management portfolio.

“There have been a number of successful offices to join the company in 2019. In West Auckland, Ray White Swanson started as a new business in February and has grown to be the market leader in their trade area.

“In the western Bay of Plenty, two new offices joined the company which were rebrands from existing businesses in the locations of Ohope and Whakatane.

“In New Plymouth, Ray White has opened a new flagship office that will provide services in sales and property management. A further office in Auckland has been confirmed for the area of Avondale, and will be opening in early 2020.

“During the past number of years, Ray White has had a strong trajectory in growth and this will continue in 2020.

“Our company is becoming the market leader in many markets across New Zealand and it’s not only the attraction of offices but the additional salespeople the company is attracting that allows careers to be built successfully within the leadership and brand of Ray White.”