Kingsley Yates departs Ray White franchise network
Veteran agent Kingsley Yates has departed the Ray White group ending a three decade long franchise association.
He has set up an independent agency named, Province.
His departure is the most dramatic sign that the future of franchise is set for turbulent times given lowered agent commissions along with the market listings contraction while all the time lumbered with geographic boundary restrictions of the franchisor.
On his exit from the Ray White Lower North Shore, Kingsley Yates had three property listings on realestate.com.au. The entire agency had 19 offerings on realestate.com.au in its franchise district covering an area stretching from Chatswood to Beauty Point.
Yates will launch the new agency with a Mosman listing of car dealer John Newell, inconjunction with LJ Hooker.
He headed three offices located at Mosman, Neutral Bay and Crows Nest. It is understood Ray White head office was keen during the renewal negotiations for wider penetration - and are likely to set up more offices across the lower North Shore as an outcome of Yates' departure.
Ray White Lower North Shore was the largest North Shore agency in the Ray White Group, with a team of 60 who have made the switch.
"The partnership with Ray White Lower North Shore has been a long and fruitful one for all parties, but at this point, due to our differing ambitions going forward we have mutually agreed to part ways," Dan White advised.
While at Ray White, the agency boasted offering continuous training to its team to ensure a high level of professionalism.
The Ray White Lower North Shore team was headed by Kingsley Yates, Shane Slater, Peter Matthews and Danny Grant who have a combined total of more than 70 years real estate experience.
For nine consecutive years Kingsley Yates was the number 1 Selling Principal Australasia wide in the Ray White group.
While not as active in recent years, Kingsley Yates, now in his mid-60s, had also been been named Ray White’s Top International Selling Principal over many years, selected from a network of more than 1000 offices, acknowledging him as one of Australia’s premier real estate salespeople.
These days its is the Surfers Paradise agent, Sam Guo was named recent as Ray White's top sales performer who, additionally, was Ray White’s number one residential sales performer internationally.
The group revealed its September sales figures were down on last September, but up on August.
The $3.8 billion month was "a little bit behind September 2015," co-chair Brian White noted when around $3.8 million was secured.
In September the Ray White Group across Australia and New Zealand listed just under 5,000 properties for sale - which they estimated was more than twice of any of its competitors.
NSW achieved $1.2 billion with Ray White Double Bay just missing a $100 million month.