National real estate company The Agency Group Australia (ASX:AU1) has appointed current Group CEO, Geoff Lucas, to the position of Managing Director and CEO.
Mr Lucas, who has held the position of Group CEO of The Agency since 23 March 2021, has significant executive experience across several industries, including two periods with listed real estate company McGrath Limited (CEO from 2018 to 2020 and COO from 2008 to 2016).
The Agency Chairman, Andrew Jensen, said the board together with founder and current Managing Director, Paul Niardone, identified that given significant opportunity for further recruitment and growth in the east coast markets, it was important for the Managing Director to be based on the eastern seaboard.
Geoff’s appointment as Managing Director and CEO comes at a time when we are focussed on rapidly increasing our business on the East Coast, having successfully established The Agency Group in Western Australia, where we have a market share of approximately 5%,” said The Agency Chairman Andrew Jensen.
“With Geoff’s vast industry experience, we are confident he and our leadership team will be able to successfully drive this growth,” he added.
“Mr Lucas noted there was significant opportunity in the Australian Residential Real Estate market, where the annual commission pool is approximately $5.6 billion across a highly fragmented industry.
“Substantial growth opportunities remain across the Eastern Seaboard for an increased presence, and I look forward to leading The Agency’s team as we continue to grow into new geographic regions,” said Mr Lucas.
With a young family, Mr Niardone was unable to relocate, however importantly he will remain an integral member of The Agency executive team, being appointed Executive Director. He will have responsibility for continuing to grow the market leading Western Australian real estate business, driving the expansion of both the financial services division and Sell Lease Property (SLP) real estate business to a national offering, and advancing a range of technology focused Proptech opportunities.
“We are immensely grateful to Paul for the vision he had to create The Agency Group and the integral role he played in building the Company into such a successful national company,” Mr Jensen said.
“Paul has steered The Agency through both highly successful and challenging times. He has built one of Australia’s leading real estate firms with over 340 agents nationally, selling 4,964 properties in Fy21, worth $4.8 billion Mr Jensen added.”
Having founded The Agency Group in 2016 and overseeing the building of the company to be one of Australia’s largest vertically integrated real estate services companies, achieving annual commissions of over $80m and record earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $4.75 million in FY2021 , the board is confident Mr Niardone can successfully drive the national growth of both the emerging SLP real estate operation and financial services businesses, which have good market penetration in the Western Australian market but is not yet present outside of this market.
“Having overseen the growth of The Agency brand nationally, we look to the key role Paul will play in overseeing the national growth of our SLP brand, together with the role he will play in driving financial services and a range of technology-based initiatives,” Mr Jensen added.