The Managing Director of Rawson Properties Tony Clarke, received the coveted 'Movers and Shakers' award at the 2007 Nedbank Property Professional Awards evening, held on Saturday 21 July at the Arabella Western Cape Hotel and Spa.
The Movers and Shakers Award was received by seven individuals who have played a pivotal role in successfully taking the industry further into the new millennium.
Clarke says that he received the award with great pride. 'It is encouraging to see that stakeholders and role-players in the property industry get recognised for their contributions. Accolades should go to the PA Group and Nedbank for encouraging industry by acknowledging them'
Clarke has since October 2006 filled the position of Managing Director of Rawson Properties. He has had 15 years of experience in property, all of it with the Rawson Group. In 1998 he became the first Rawson branch manager to obtain franchise status and for five successive years his franchise was the top performer in the Rawson Group.
In April 2005, Clarke moved to Gauteng as Regional Manager and spearheaded the drive which has resulted in the establishment of 68 new franchises in that province in less than 20 months.
Clarke says that at no stage in his career, or with the Rawson Group, has estate agency work been so attractive to the man in the street. Rawson Properties has a target of ensuring that 400 new franchisees are in operation by 2010. To date they have set up 140 franchises in seven provinces.
According to Clarke, the growth of the group has been most noticeable in Gauteng where, 'all records were, I believe, broken with the implementation of 68 franchises in such a short space of time'. Expansion into Southern Cape and Eastern Province has also gone on steadily, he says.
'People often ask me in what way we are different from other property franchise groups,' says Clarke. 'One answer is that, apart from insisting on regular training, we are comfortable in all markets. We have recently flourished in upper bracket areas '“ but we are equally content to be elsewhere. We have no less than 12 franchisees from the previously disadvantaged sector.
'The good news for the South African property market, from our point of view, is that the growth in the more affordable sectors of the property market continues to be exponential '“ where as in the upper bracket market, a leveling off has become inevitable and there is currently a price stabilisation taking place'
