40under40 Winner - Paul Blackburne

After four years of nearly full-time volunteer work for a not-for-profit organisation, and driven by the desire to be in a position to contribute to aid and education on an international level, Paul Blackburne joined the Blackburne Property Group in 2001.

Three years later, his successes enabled him to buy out the other owners and he has been the sole owner for nearly a year of what is the largest strata manager in Western Australia, with 5,000 properties currently under management.

At 28 years old, and with 30 staff under his control, Mr Blackburne says he wanted to take control of the company because of the great potential, and has already significantly increased the revenue of the company.

Already working for most of Perth’s key developers, Mr Blackburne says he intends to aggressively seek acquisition opportunities to create a national property company.

In the past 18 months he has personally sold more than 300 apartments worth over $100 million.

For the past two years the Blackburne Property Group has been closely involved with the redevelopment of Subiaco Square, selling 220 apartments, the Subiaco Square Shopping Centre, and two large commercial buildings in the precinct.

All of this is remarkable enough, but Mr Blackburne is determined to achieve success in business so that he can have the capacity to implement international aid programs, and is already in the process of undertaking an education exchange with Indonesia.