A Reflection of 2014 - An Outlook to 2015
Category Newsletter: HeadOffice
The 2014 year could be described as a Defining Year in Real Estate for Century 21 Properties.
With 14 new and relevant franchises being awarded all over the country, with a growth in concluded/confirmed sales around the 20% mark and with expanded marketing, training and systems initiatives to improve the quality of service and benefits to consumers and agents alike, has resulted in Century 21 cementing its foundation in South Africa and is primed to grow for may years to come. As expected from the World’s Largest Real Estate brand, Century 21 South Africa is emulating the brands global dominance which currently operates in 78 countries through 6800 offices and with well over 1 million concluded and registered property sales transacted in 2014. The Century 21 brand is now a familiar sight in most major metropolitan areas and in most of the leisure markets whether inland or coastal and all these areas are represented by over 300 qualified and motivated estate agents.
Highlights of the year included the expansion of our head office staff compliment to further improve our service to franchisees and agents, the monumental support and attendance by principals and agents of our Century 21 Pearl Awards convention at Sun City, the brilliant team spirit shown by our people to raise funds for The Door of Hope Charity and massive improvement brand awareness amongst consumers as a result of our improved national marketing initiatives undertaken over the year.
Says Harry Nicolaides, CEO of the group, “Yes, we can itemise and discuss each aspect of our offering and benefit to consumers individually to understand why Century 21 is becoming the most desired property brand in South Africa today for consumers, principals and estate agents alike but I believe that one of the most important aspects contributing to our success is attributed to our group having “Energacity”. Honestly and without trying to be smart or have misplaced arrogance, besides all the superior tools and systems we have, our group has a wonderful, content and happy team spirit about it and this is why we have coined the phrase - Century 21 agents have Energacity, we do not know what it means but it just feels right!”
For the 2015 year we expect much of the same but perhaps with added energy and vigour across all fronts. We will be entrenching our Smarter Bolder Faster campaign as this has become our differentiating identity. As qualified agents become a scarce commodity due to the cumbersome accreditation requirements and with desperate attempts being made by some existing but mainly new brands in South Africa too “poach” our agents, we will merely continue improving the benefits offered to our agents and to those wishing to join us and importantly, to those wishing to enter the industry for the first time. Where other brands are focusing on size for their growth and survival, we will be focusing more and more on quality as this is the only way to grow relevantly as in any sustainable business model it is what the consumer experiences (in this case what agents experience) that dictates a brand’s growth and sustainability and nothing else. In any case however, we will not be apologising to anyone for being the World’s Largest Real Estate Organization.
All involved in the Century 21 group are grateful and humbled for our successes so far and we would like to thank our full team of principals and our estate agents for “championing” the brand nationally but most importantly and absolutely critically, it is our sellers and buyers that we must thank in the first place for choosing to do business with us.
Author: Century 21 South Africa
