RAINE & HORNE SECURES TOP COMMERCIAL OFFICE GONG

A ROCKLEA real estate agency has been commended for excellence in commercial property services.

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland’s 2011 commercial agency of the year award went to Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane Southside, putting it in the running for the 2012 Real Estate Institute of Australia’s national awards for excellence to be held in Darwin during March.

The agency was recognised for its business development plan, professional development, marketing strategies, significant sales, property management listings and customer service record.

“After making the finals in this category for the last four years, it is a thrill to finally land this prestigious award for our efforts in 2011,” says principal Joseph Grasso (pictured left with fellow principal Nick Comino and REIQ chairman Pamela Bennett).

“We also opened a second office in Brisbane’s Bayside precinct, which was a move counter-cyclical to other agency groups, who were shutting offices in 2011 and this contributed to us winning this award … this helped us attract new managements and also improved our sales and leasing marketing share.”

Comino describes the win as a ‘real feather in our cap’.

“This victory is all the more praiseworthy as 2011 was a challenging year where our leasing business was able to underpin our revenues,” he says.

Grasso expects retail, office and industrial sales and leasing markets in southern suburbs will be more robust than last year.

“After a challenging year for office and retail real space in 2011, leasing activity is up around 25 per cent compared to February 2011, while leasing and sales enquiries are up almost 35 per cent,” he says.

“We have a significant percentage of enquiries coming from firms with an exposure to the mining sector, while vacancy rates for Brisbane office space are also falling as a consequence of demand for space from mining and technology companies.”

There is also demand for so-called ‘design and construct’ projects from corporate clients. Comino points to the agency’s recent work on securing an 8000 sq m property in the western suburbs for a German-based technology and services company.

“There is now 4000 sqm of combined office and warehouse space under construction,” he says.

“We had very little of this type of activity in 2011 and I would say enquiries for ‘design and construct’ are up 20 per cent, with mining and web-dependent businesses leading the charge.”