Award-winning Director reflects on brilliant 19/20 financial years

RAY WHITE Upper North Shore Director David Walker (pictured above) has reflected on his office’s superb 2019/2020 financial year after he was recognised multiple times at the leading group’s recent annual awards.

Mr Walker achieved Chairman’s Elite and Chairman’s Elite Business Leaders status and was also recognised as the number three international principal in terms of settled commission.

“It’s certainly been a successful year for my team and I. The 19/20 financial year saw us sell 79 homes on the Upper North Shore for a total property value exceeding $184,000,000,” Mr Walker said.

“We've experienced challenging times as a broader community with floods, bushfires, and now the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic.

“Throughout all of this we knew we had to do things differently. We completely re-strategised, particularly throughout the lockdown period, and by doing this we led the way and continued our momentum over this difficult period.

“As a result, our business took out back-to-back record months in July and August.

“In July, 41 properties were sold with a value of $94,000,000 and in August, 49 properties sold with a market value of $152,939,000 for the Ray White Upper North Shore office as a whole.

“With COVID-19, there was an expectation the market was going to pull back. All we saw was negative speculation around prices falling dramatically, but Ray White Upper North Shore actually held their market quite firm.

“There's still good energy in the market, buyers are still wanting to buy good real estate and we do live in the best part of the world, so we're always going to have strong demand.

“This year my team and I have broken suburb records in Wahroonga (33 Cleveland Street pictured below), Turramurra and St Ives, so we certainly haven’t seen any signs of the negative speculation surrounding the property market.

“Attracting the best of the best to our business is without doubt the highlight of the previous financial year for me.

“It's been so rewarding to see people wanting to come and join us from other companies who I’ve always respected, and seeing them come to us and not only take it to the next level, but shoot it out of the park.”

Mr Walker and fellow Director Greg Windel said they were extremely proud of all their agents and exceptional support staff within the business who make everything happen seamlessly.

"We’re lucky to have such superstars within the business who consistently put 100 per cent in, but are also genuinely great people and awesome to work with, and I need to make a special mention of some of my team in particular,” Mr Walker said.

“Anna Cavill, who started her real estate career in our business almost five years ago and achieved Chairman's Elite status and is ranked sixth in NSW, she’s also grown her team by 50 per cent in the last 12 months alone.

“Then there’s James Levy who joined our company just over 12 months ago and has also achieved Alan White Elite Performers status and is ranked 14th in New South Wales.

“And finally, there’s David Beveridge, Rowan Lazar, Matt Bolin and Dominic Maxwell, who all achieved Alan White Elite Performers status.”

As for 2021/22, Mr Walker said he was looking forward to a less challenging year than the one just gone, but acknowledged it had brought the team together.

“It certainly gave our team the chance to show what they’re made of. We don't know what the property market will do when the government subsidies do eventually dwindle, but we plan on never stopping to get better,” he said.

“Times do change, and if you don’t change faster, someone else will. You just need to ensure you surround yourself with people that have the same mindset and enjoy the ride.”