Coldwell Banker sales climb

Avia Collinder, Business Writer

Coldwell Banker Jamaica Realty is projecting that real estate sales brokered by the agency could hit J$4 billion to J$5 billion this year.

The realty office was already halfway to its target in the first quarter, according to Andrew Issa, chief executive officer of Andrew Issa Realty Limited, which owns the Coldwell Banker franchise in Jamaica.

"We had a very good first quarter with approximately J$2.5 billion in sales, and based mainly on the sale of several luxury villas in Montego Bay to overseas clients. At yearend we expect sales to be up 25 per cent on 2010," Issa told the Financial Gleaner.

Coldwell Banker is also positioning for more business in the luxury market segment. It has signed up with Luxury Real Estate, a high-end real estate website. "We are expanding our network," Issa said.

Some of the new business is being driven, he said, by a real estate magazine published by Coldwell Banker Jamaica, because of its outreach to second generation overseas who want a reason, a home base, to repatriate.

Each issue of the magazine, called Kuya, has secured two to three sales, the realtor said. The semi-annual magazine is in its third run. The company spends J$3 million per issue to produce Kuya, amounting to 60 per cent of its J$10-million annual budget. Each print run is said to be 10,000 copies.

Otherwise, Coldwell Banker property sales are mostly concentrated in the under J$10-million range bought mainly by civil servants "who join together to access NHT loans to purchase," said Issa; followed by mid-market properties priced under J$20 million.

Some investors are going after properties to flip them into rentals.

"With the mortgages rates now in single digits and with low returns on interest income, people are looking for other opportunities to earn. Rented properties can return up to 10 per cent per year and, coupled with the natural appreciation in property value, could give an annual return of 15 per cent in the first 10 years," the realtor said.

With the onset of the recession in late 2008, Coldwell Banker's sales dipped in 2009 for the first time in its 10-year run, but rose again in 2010, according to Issa, who said Jamaica was the only one of four Caribbean franchises to grow business last year.

Then the company brokered transactions of J$3.5 billion, marking a stellar 59 per cent climb on 2009 sales of J$2.2 billion, but narrowly under-performing 2008's J$3.6 billion, according to numbers provided by Issa.

Kuya is distributed in Jamaican communities in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, as well as in local airports, duty-free shops and tourism-central areas.

Editor-in-chief Kaili McDon-nough Scott says it helps to sell properties, especially in the luxury market.

"We had one customer who received a copy of the magazine and made a purchase the next week for a luxury villa on the north-east coast," she said.

The most recent property sale arising from the magazine was a villa priced at US$750,000 (J$64.5 million), the realty company said. It earns commissions of three to seven per cent on each real-estate deal.

Inside Jamaica, Coldwell Banker claims to have the most listings proportionally and the largest sales force, numbering 50, but Issa says there is no collated data to determine which realty company is the leading seller.

austanny@yahoo.com