Michael Pallier quits R&H to re-open Sotheby's Australian real estate office
Double Bay estate agent Michael Pallier will leave Raine & Horne Double Bay after 11 years to head Sotheby's Sydney flagship after a three year absence from the Australian market.
''We know the overseas market has some exceptional properties but now we have the opportunity to showcase our finest to the world,'' Pallier told his local paper, The Wentworth Courier.
The first Sydney property to be listed under the Sotheby's brand will be a 2,000-square-metre estate on the Vaucluse waterfront with $25 million-plus price expectations.
The agency will compete with Christies International and Savills, the other international residential agencies with a strong presence in Australia.
Pallier says joining Sotheby's is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He can't advise on the sign-up franchise fee or the ongoing commissions of possibly five percent or higher.
He was previously at Raine & Horne Double Bay, having taken up real estate in late 1997 at McGrath after being a leading Mercedes car salesman. His clients from his car sales days have continued to deal with him including most recently, Stephen Brown, the boss of the 1st Fleet trucking company, and his wife, Corrine.
Pallier's earliest property listing in March 1998 was the Rose Bay unit of the retired ballet dancer Anna di Cardi for $420,000. His next listing was Radford, one of the two contemporary Point Piper waterfronts built on the Paradis sur Mer site, which sold to the Magid family at $7.35 million.
He left McGrath for Laing & Simmons Double Bay and has been at Raine & Horne since 2001.
"I have the highest respect for the Raine family and I would not have left for any other brand but this is Sotheby's and it's a chance to be part of a worldwide network,'' says the agent, who secured over $200 million in property sales in 2010-2011.
Pallier has signed an exclusive 25-year master franchise agreement with Sotheby's, and fellow Raine & Horne Double Bay agents Warren Davis and James McCowan will join him at the re-activated agency.
McCowan will take up the role of Sotheby's NSW and ACT director of sales.
The Sydney office will be located at Double Bay, with additional offices planned in Sydney's north shore and CBD between 2013 and 2015.
It was in 2009 when the prestigious international art auction house sold its Australian arm to a rival company headed by Sydney businessman and auctioneer Tim Goodman that the real estate side of the company was closed. This week Raine & Horne Double Bay, led by principals Martin Maskin, Barry Goldman, Ric Serrao and
Mark Goldman, beat off challenges from the likes of Raine & Horne Gladstone and Raine & Horne Darwin, to scoop most of the major office annual awards within the Raine & Horne network including Top Office (Number of Sales), Top Office (Dollar Value) and Top Office (Auction Listings). Mr Serrao grabbed second place in the Top Salesperson (Dollar Value) category and was runner-up in the Top Principal (Number of Sales) behind Raine & Horne Charmhaven’s Andrew Sorensen. “We’ve come a long way since our foundation as a small office with just four real estate agents in 2001,” says Mr Maskin.
