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A return to favour of the country’s regional mining hubs has led to more than a dozen new business and leadership additions for the LJ Hooker network over the September quarter.
The LJ Hooker Mackay Group — incorporating agencies in Mackay, Moranbah and Dysart — has rekindled the brand’s two-decade association with the Central Queensland region.
The return to Mackay, led by former Living Here specialists Cassandra Walters and Tara Smyth, comes ahead of an optimistic time for the Central Queensland market, whose vacancy rates are below 2 per cent and unemployment has significantly tightened, from 7.7 per cent in mid-2015 to 3.3 per cent in August. Both of these are on the back of mining commitments.
LJ Hooker has also returned to Karratha in the Pilbara in the north of WA, where iron ore employment is underpinning improved market conditions. According to the REIWA, sales activity rose by 41.2 per cent year-on-year for the June quarter after several lacklustre years.
In New South Wales, LJ Hooker has opened in Edensor Park and Bringelly; in Queensland in Goondiwindi and Burleigh Beach; and in Tasmania in Launceston.
New directors have also continued LJ Hooker’s presence in established markets through Victoria in Frankston and Werribee | Hoppers Crossing; NSW in Camden and Castle Hill; and Queensland in Salisbury, Coolangatta | Tweed and Gayndah.
George Bobb has joined the group as director of LJ Hooker in Camden.
“The training and content resources, systems and dashboards and sharing of information among offices has greatly impressed us,” Mr Bobb said.
“We’ve been impressed with the digital innovations like LJ Hooker Boost and the market has an immediate connection with the name.”
Head of network development for LJ Hooker Ben Mitchell said that the influx of new businesses was “advantageous” during the peak selling season.
Mr Mitchell also said that the location of new markets as well as the calibre of specialists supported the brand’s long-term objectives.
“Increasing our market presence in the wider Western Sydney market was a strategic move: its affordability and future infrastructure pipeline will attract hundreds of thousands of new residents over the coming decades.
“And LJ Hooker has returned to central mining areas at a pivotal moment, with demand in the resources sector rising again with improving optimism in the state markets.”
He said that the LJ Hooker development team has managed the succession planning of several offices.
“As part of that process, it was extremely encouraging to see [that] in the case of four agencies, the new business owners are from within our network. These specialists believe they can increase their market dominance with the brand,” Mr Mitchell said.
“Any franchisor appreciates stakeholders increasing their commitment in their brand as it represents a real vote of confidence in the offering.”
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