Kon Stathopoulos departs McGrath Estate Agents

Kon Stathopoulos, the head of sales, has departed McGrath Estate Agents.

Stathopoulos is no longer listed on website showing the McGrath management team.

He had been with McGrath since the beginning of 2014.

He became head of company sales in October 2016 when he was elevated from being McGrath’s general manager of sales, NSW.

He took on the current role when McGrath Limited lost its longtime head of sales, Matt Lahood to The Agency, with the Lahood departure and Stathopoulos appointment announced to the stockmarket.

He was listed among the agencies' top earners in the 2018 company annual report with a $625,000 annual renumeration, including bonuses, up from $560,000 in the 2017 financial year and $413,000 in 2016.

Lahood had been on $679,000 in the first year after the McGrath float.

The mid-week departure has not been notified to shareholders, nor any replacement details.

He joined the Sydney office in 2014 when he moved into real estate from Melbourne, and took 12,000 shares in the group in the late 2015 IPO grant to executives, and 77,000 shares in the 2017 grant.

He'd previously been in sales for almost 14 years, starting off as a teenager as a telemarketer for Neopost Australia, a mail and logistics company.

He advanced to manage revenue, profit and their entire Australian sales team at Neopost, which included culture, strategy, training and recruitment.

McGrath was a client.

On his 2016 appointment the then chief executive Cameron Judson announced he was "excited about the energy and enthusiasm that he brings."

Stathopoulos has previously explained his enthusiasm was that "real estate has always been in my DNA."

He'd purchased his first home at 22 and second at 29, both in Melbourne.

He'd noted proudly that the McGrath agency had superstar agents.

"One of my favourite roles is being able to celebrate the agents who have committed and been loyal to the business for many many years," he recently said.

McGrath will shortly be leaving its long-time head office in Edgecliff in Sydney's eastern suburbs and heading to inner-city Pyrmont.

It has taken the lease of a refurbished 1500 sqm ground floor space at 100 Harris Street from late October. 

One insider reportedly suggested the new digs enabled McGrath to "continue its brand renewal."

The gross annual market rent in the former 1890s wool store sits was $600 to $700 a square metre, giving McGrath savings in lease expenses, according to the Nine Entertainment website.

McGrath will share the building with Domain and WeWork.

The agency had reduced the Edgecliff office size required on New South Head Road last year. 

Initially developed in 1989, and expanded in the early 2000s, the Edgecliff building has five levels of commercial office space a total lettable area of 3,500 square metres as well as basement parking for 67 cars.

The building sold last month for $41 million back to Anka Eastern Pty Ltd.

It had previously sold in 2005 to long-time Mirvac chief Bob Hamilton who paid $19.26 million reflecting a sale yield of 7.75 per cent when it was bought from Anka Property Group, directed by Andrew and Vera Boyarsky.

Anka Property Group had paid $10.6 million in 2001, it having been the temporary offices of Woollahra Council.

It was leased on its 2001 sale to McGrath and data warehousing firm Tacoma, with the price translating to a sale yield of more than 9 per cent when sold by mainland Chinese investor Grand Ocean, which bought the building in 1995 for $10.8 million.