Media release - 14 February 2012

Raine & Horne Commercial grabs top commercial office gong at 2012 REIQ awards

After four years as a finalist, commercial and industrial specialist Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane Southside, has landed the Real Estate Institute of Queensland’s prestigious ‘Commercial Agency of the Year’ award for 2011.

The award recognises excellence in agency practice and covers the commercial sector, including small, medium and large agencies and means Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane Southside automatically progresses into the 2012 Real Estate Institute of Australia’s National Awards for Excellence in Darwin in March.

The award also recognises the agency’s achievements, its business development plan, professional development and marketing strategies. It also acknowledges significant sales and/or property management listings in 2011, as well as Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane Southside customer service record in 2011.

“After making the finals in this category for the last four years, it’s a thrill to finally land this prestigious award for our efforts in 2011,” said Joseph Grasso, Principal Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane Southside, who racked up 16 years with a number of Big 4 and boutique commercial brands before joining Raine & Horne Commercial in 2005.

“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.

“The satellite office in Bayside was built around good people, and this helped us attract new managements and also improved our sales and leasing marketing share,” he said.

Mr Grasso’s business partner, Nick Comino, who started in commercial property in 1990, added, “It’s a real feather in our cap as there are many hundreds of commercial agencies in Queensland and we are absolutely thrilled to be recognised for our efforts in 2011.

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

Looking forward, Mr Grasso says the retail, office and industrial sales and leasing markets in southern Brisbane are already looking more robust than in 2011.

“After a challenging year in 2011, leasing activity is up around 25% compared to February 2011, while leasing and sales enquiries are up almost 35%,” said Mr Grasso.

“More importantly, we believe that enquiries will generate real business in 2012 because people are genuine about shifting premises.”

In the early months of 2011, many enquiries came from panicked businesses looking for new space in the aftermath of the Brisbane floods. However enquiries dried up as soon as tenants realised they couldn’t walk away from leases if an owner committed to repairing flood-affected properties.

“Now we have a significant percentage of enquiries coming from firms with an exposure to the mining sector, while vacancy rates for space is also falling as a consequence of demand for space from mining and technology companies,” said Mr Comino.

“In the wake of the GFC, and the collapse of speculative building, there’s a shortage of stock in Brisbane, so we are seeing demand for ‘design and construct’ projects from corporates with plans to expand in 2012.”

To illustrate Mr Comino’s point, Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane Southside sourced a 8,000 square metre property in western Brisbane for a German-based global supplier of technology and services.

“There is now 4,000 sqm of combined office and warehouse space under construction,” said Mr Comino.

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

-ENDS-

For further media information contact:

Joseph Grasso, Principal Raine & Horne Commercial Brisbane Southside on 0418 789 080

Kit Bashford, National Marketing & Communications Manager on 02 9258 5400