Ray White NSW powers ahead

THE pandemic may not be over but the property market across New South Wales keeps roaring ahead.

Ray White New South Wales has continued to outperform in this incredibly strong market, selling a total of $20 billion worth of property in 2020-21. Six months of the year were the group’s best month’s on record in the state ever.

The group helped almost 40,000 buyers and sellers with their property ambitions in the last 12 months, the Ray White New South Wales network saw more top performing agents than ever before.

Ray White New South Wales / ACT CEO Andrew McCulloch (pictured) attributed this success not only to the market conditions but to hard work of the group’s 203 franchised businesses.

“It's easy to talk about the strength of the market, but last year we continued to outperform this market each and every month,” Mr McCulloch said.

“We achieved one personal best after another, and saw a 140 per cent increase of agents achieve our prestigious recognition rankings of Elite and Chairman's Elite.”

With such a high performing network of business leaders, sales agents, property managers and support staff, the Ray White Group has worked hard to develop a structure that would provide genuine value.

New South Wales Chief Performance Officer Tim Snell and Regional General Manager Mahan Shishineh have been tasked with building a bespoke plan for each and every franchise in the state.

“We work with each of our businesses one-on-one to build plans for both their sales and property management businesses,” Mr Snell said.

“We call these Partnership Plans because we work in partnership with each business owner to develop a bespoke approach in achieving their goals.

“Ultimately, we drive performance and profitability but this looks different for every business.”

Having crafted business plans for more than 200 businesses has made it imperative that the Ray White New South Wales corporate team was made up of skilled specialists focusing on developing each arm of a real estate business, from sales and property management, to technology and finance.

Senior Manager for Ray White Accounting Solutions David Simpson said many of the government grants and subsidies provided over the last 12 months had been the injection many businesses needed to get ahead.

“Some 92 per cent of the businesses I worked with last year were able to receive the Australian Government JobKeeper payments.This meant approximately $18 million going to Ray White offices to help support their business during this time.”

“I worked with many business owners to take advantage of the traineeship subsidy. With at least 40 new-to-industry employees hired, this represented a rebate of almost $1 million to Ray White businesses,” Mr Simpson said.

New South Wales Chief Auctioneer Alex Pattaro said such a strong year could not have been achieved without the company’s culture of auctions.

“We have been in the auction business since the company’s inception in 1902; it’s a tried and tested method for generating the most interest in and the best price for a property,” Mr Pattaro said.

Some 40 per cent of properties listed by Ray White in New South Wales are scheduled for auction, an increase of seven per cent year on year.

More and more buyers became confident in the auction process in the last 12 months, with the average number of registered bidders per auction increasing from 5.1 in 2019/20 to 6 in 2020/21.

The strength of the auction process only became more established throughout lockdown, with the Ray White New South Wales auction department rapidly mobilising to help the network move 168 auctions online with 10 hours notice.

The strong growth and innovation has seen Ray White become the brand of choice for up and coming business owners and agents in New South Wales, with top agents Josh Tesolin, and Peter Diamantidis all making the move in the last year.

“We welcomed many new names to Ray White in New South Wales this year, representing an accumulative $1.44 billion worth of property sold,” said Ray White New South Wales Chief Growth Officer Bridgette Collis.

“We know that changing brands can be incredibly daunting. This is why we have a dedicated specialist, Emma Biasetto, whose role is to ensure a smooth transition, looking after everything from marketing and office signage, to database movement and technical support.”

On this, CEO Andrew McCulloch said that growth and recruitment gives the business the ability to invest back in their network.

“As a business, we invest in excess of $1 million a week ensuring that we remain at the forefront of technology, training and marketing.

“Growth allows us to attract not only the best people in the industry from a corporate level to be able to support all of our business and people to achieve their business goals.”