Raine & Horne Fiji recently reached a milestone with the licensing of 15 sales staff..
The local franchise of the Australian-founded real estate house was launched in mid-July, under the co-directorship of former Melbourne realtor CJ Shergill, banker Sanjay Krishna and IT specialist, Aveet Gounder.
With its headquarters in Lautoka and Nadi and a planned, rapid expansion to Suva, Savusavu and Rakiraki, it has recently upped its marketing, with television advertisements, strong, social media branding and agent profiles.
“It’s a momentous occasion for us, and brings to nearly 20 the total number of our licensed agents and salespersons,” Krishna said.
“Raine & Horne is a fourth-generation real estate business – one of Australia’s largest and most reputable and the fasted growing network there, and our staff are trained to their global standards.”
The Real Estate Agents Licensing Board recently released its latest list of licensed agents, and as part of proposed reforms, its draft Real Estate Agents Regulations 2017 includes a provision for all agents and salespersons to display identification card issued by their agencies at all times when carrying out real estate agency works.
Raine & Horne has also recently held a training seminar for its Fiji team by Bill Russell, the Raine & Horne Group’s General Manager International & Commercial.
Shergill had earlier noted that emulating their model here would greatly benefit local consumers.
“Importing Raine & Horne’s business practises will prove a big tick with Fijians because Australia has the best consumer protection laws, a sophisticated real estate industry, and very high standards of agency practise, especially in a franchised environment.”
Shergill worked for Westpac in Australia and Fiji and has been involved in real estate with several major and international brands since 2006.
“There is room for big real estate brands such as Raine & Horne in Fiji and the Pacific region, as there are many smaller players in local markets. The delivering of commercial brokering services are other opportunities that Raine & Horne could deliver to Fiji through its broking arm, Our Broker,” he said
And given Krishna’s extensive experience in banking and as a Mortgage Broker, he said this was a viable area they could branch into for clients.
The realty house has plans to also open offices in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Samoa, as part of a regional expansions, and as part of its global network, aims to solidify its reach in India, whose real estate market is expected to reach USD $180 billion within the next three years.
Executive CEO, Angus Raine earlier noted that Raine & Horne had over 300 offices in Australia and had highly aggressive expansion plans overseas, with Fiji being just one of them.
“We’ll open in India by the end of this year and maybe- as I’ve said in the press in Australia- I think in three to five years, if I’m a judge, we’ll have more offices in India than we’ll have in Australia.”