All White now for Billion Dollar Man

Ray White Commercial CEO Mark Williams (left) welcomes Bruce Whillans on board, who will operate from the General Building at 33 Shortland St. Photo / Mark Heaslip

The Billion Dollar Man of Auckland real estate, Bruce Whillans, has purchased the Auckland regional franchise from Ray White Commercial and will own and operate the Auckland office from a CBD character building.

Franchisor Ray White Commercial already has established offices in Wellington and Christchurch.

Whillans has taken a 220sq m suite on the second floor of the Chicago-styled General Building at 33 Shortland St, which was built in 1928, and is owned by Shortland Management.

"I have three team members confirmed, coming out of other agencies," Whillans says. His latest surprise move follows his resignation from CB Richard Ellis after two years as national director of institutional investment properties. "My time with CBRE was most enjoyable, rounding off my real estate career with exposure to the corporate and institutional sector," Whillans said.

Whillans is noted for having sold in excess of $1 billion of commercial property in a career spanning 25 years - 23 of them with Bayleys Real Estate, where the focus was on high net worth locals.

"Despite lacklustre market conditions, my last two years with CBRE were among my busiest, with 12 sales totalling in excess of $320 million," says Whillans, who took out the CBRE Award for Excellence in Agency as the agency's top fee writer.

His notable sales included West Plaza in Albert St for $20 million, the Beaumont Quarter in Freemans Bay for $47 million and the recent sale of the Deloitte Centre, 80 Queen St for $177 million, where Whillans was the listing agent representing Brookfield Multiplex. More recently, Whillans was promoting SOHO Square Ponsonby for sale by tender. It recently sold conditionally for a price in excess of $20 million.

Whillans says Ray White "ticked all the boxes" when he was considering his next move earlier this year.

"After talking with people with long experience in this industry, a franchise arrangement came out as the strongest option.

"It is like a partnership that I have a stake in with an incentive to create real value. With the support systems Ray White provides, I can focus on building a top-performing team.

"Real estate is also being driven by the power of e-marketing and, in my view, Ray White is one of the leading exponents in the world. The family business structure of Ray White also appealed and is familiar to me, having worked for Bayleys."

Whillans was seven times Bayleys' salesperson of the year and eight times winner of the agency's Salesperson of the Year for the Industrial and Commercial award.

"There is a passion in family run businesses that corporate structures with executives who come and go rarely have. It's a more motivating culture," he says. "Ray White is also a crisp, clean brand with no legacy issues to deal with in the Auckland commercial market."

Mark Williams, chief executive officer for Ray White Commercial, says Whillans will be supported by the experience of the group to grow the business.

"From our perspective, it is important that ownership remains in the hands of the agents," Williams says.

"Ray White's chairman, Brian White, has a particular passion for commercial property that saw him establish the brand of leading British commercial realtor Richard Ellis in New Zealand and Australia," Williams says.

"Both businesses were sold to CB in 1997, soon after it acquired the British company. Ray White Commercial was launched three years later but Brian White continued as a CB Richard Ellis's director until 2005."

Williams says Ray White's business is "very much about identifying the right people to work with rather than planting Ray White flags on a map. We are not a global business. Our vision is to be the leading agency in the markets we operate in."

Whillans says his Auckland office will focus on transactions in the $5-50 million space. "I want to establish a team of around eight quality agents for this market sector. I don't want an agency that's trying to do a bit of everything - including selling fish and chip shops in Hillsborough.

"It's a segment that is usually below the level of interest for the international real estate firms and currently not fully serviced by the local agents.

"Yet it's the focus for many of the people whom I have dealt with for many years who continue to be active in the market." Whillans says the past two years had been particularly difficult for the property industry, with the withdrawal of funding by many financial institutions and depressed values.

"It's very easy to hang out a sign and sell properties in a boom but when conditions are difficult, a deep understanding of the market and its players is invaluable.

"Clients want solutions and want them delivered in a cost-efficient manner. The days of vendor-funded big-budget marketing campaigns promoting the agent more than the property are over."

Commenting on Whillans' purchase of the Auckland franchise for Ray White Commercial, the company's chairman Brian White says the focus of the fourth-generation family-owned business is to move into new territories only when it has identified the right people to work with.

"Our business very much turns around good people who can make Ray White number one in every segment and location we choose to operate in.

"With Bruce's experience and expertise we are going a long way towards achieving that in commercial real estate in Auckland."

Now one of Australasia's largest real estate-focused businesses, Ray White had its origins as a livestock auctioneer in rural Queensland where it was founded in 1902 in Crows Nest.

The business has grown to more than 1000 offices with 8000 staff and an annual turnover of A$30 billion ($37 billion) across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and through offices in Delhi, Bangkok, Shanghai, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Residential real estate is the largest division in terms of offices and staff. Other business units specialise in commercial, hotels, investment, mortgage broking, funds management and construction.

Chairman Brian White, who has been the driver of the business for the past 30 years, has built the commercial division to 60 offices and led growth into Asia that will see the base expand to include Japan, Korea and Malaysia and further into China.