Pro Property has become the first Western Australian representative of the world’s eight largest franchise company, global real estate firm Coldwell Banker.
Pro Property has become the first Western Australian representative of the world’s eight largest franchise company, global real estate firm Coldwell Banker.
Pro Property was founded three years ago by Brett Wilkins, formerly of the Hawaiian Group and national director with Jones Lang Wootton, Paul Rogers from CB Richard Ellis, and John Langdon from Colliers.
Pro Property’s yellow and black signage, which has occupied a prominent place on Adelaide Terrace, will be replaced with Coldwell Banker’s blue and white.
Mr Wilkins said the offer to become part of the Coldwell Banker group was accepted because it would enhance the vision of an international corporate real estate agency to a degree no other franchising group could.
“By integrating ourselves into this most respected international real estate agency we believe that Coldwell Banker Pro Property will be able to take real estate service to a new level in Western Australia, and also ensure that our company can strengthen our existing international marketing efforts to a worldwide client base,” he said.
“I went on multiple trips east visiting Coldwell Banker offices, as well as the Singapore, Beijing and Jakarta offices. We sent senior members of our administrative staff everywhere, checking out the systems and tools and making sure that they were going to give the improved service to our clients that we are seeking.”
Pro Property has grown from five to 40 staff in three years, offering services such as project marketing, asset management, general residential sales, land marketing and commercial and industrial sale.
“I have always understood the international cross-border investment in real estate, having purchased over $1 billion of Australian real estate for Malaysian interests and settling some of these interests in the US and the Netherlands,” Mr Wilkins said.
“This continued with the development of Pro Property, where a major focus of our business plan has always been in tapping into the international demand for Perth properties as much as possible.”
Pro Property’s latest quarterly website report says a monthly average of 6,650 enquiries about Perth real estate were received from international purchasers. Coldwell Banker’s Australian CEO, Alex Caraco, said the group was founded in 1906 in San Francisco, and currently was represented in 29 countries with more than 129,000 sales associates.
“McDonald’s is the largest franchise in the world, and we are ranked eighth. Last year we sold $US3.3 trillion of real estate around the world,” he said.
“We have been in the Australian market for the last three years, and are planning an expansion into Western Australia based on strong investor interest and the very strong economy.”
Coldwell Banker Pro Property will open a new financial services company next month, renovating its offices to accommodate a further 15 desks to allow for further expansion.
