Peter and Val Gilmour, together with their partners, originally purchased the Franchise Rights for Southern Africa in 1995 and grew RE/MAX successfully until the region was purchased by RE/MAX International in 2000.
In 2010, the Southern African Franchise Operations were re-acquired by the original founders of RE/MAX in Southern Africa, Peter and Val Gilmour, under a new Master Franchise Agreement, together with Adrian & Vicky Goslett.
RE/MAX of Southern Africa is regarded as the pioneer of the RE/MAX international expansion as it was the first country franchise to be sold outside of North America. RE/MAX of Southern Africa was recognised as the top RE/MAX region in the world for 2012 at the group’s Las Vegas convention held in March 2013.
Since then, RE/MAX of Southern Africa has continued to achieve some record sales figures. September 2014 is a prime example, where the group achieved a new record of R2-billion worth of sales in one month. This was the first time ever in the 20-year history of the company that such a high monthly sales figure was recorded. The record was broken again a few months later in December 2014.
RE/MAX of Southern Africa can proudly lay claim to being the number one real estate brand in terms of:
number of agents nationally;
home sales by any real estate agency;
real estate agency website traffic (ranked by Alexa.com) and
highest national market share of residential property sales
RE/MAX of Southern Africa is the largest real estate company in South Africa and is almost twice as large as its nearest competitor with over 2 200 agents operating from over 175 offices in 10 countries in Southern Africa and sales in excess of R22 billion achieved for 2014.
This year the brand celebrates its 20th year of operation in the southern Africa region with its footprint covering South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Lesotho, Mauritius and the Seychelles. RE/MAX of Southern Africa has grown considerably in the past two decades, despite the tough trading conditions that have dominated the last few years.
In order to position the company for continued growth in all markets in the next 20 years, Z Capital Properties (Pty) Ltd, a prominent black empowerment company, has purchased a 45% ownership interest in RE/MAX of Southern Africa.
RE/MAX took this important step to show the industry and its clients that it is serious about leading the real estate industry into the next decade. Transformation is very high on the property industry’s agenda and RE/MAX wanted to be the first real estate group out of the top six groups in the country to introduce black ownership at the highest level.
RE/MAX CEO Adrian Goslett and Senior Marketing Manager, Vicky Goslett, who both have more than 10 years of real estate experience, have invested further in the RE/MAX of Southern Africa brand by acquiring a 55% interest.
Nearly 30% of the current RE/MAX membership in Southern Africa consists of agents of colour, many from disadvantaged communities around the country, compared with the current industry number of approximately 5%. RE/MAX plans to grow in 2015 with the many entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds who presently have no employment and who would like to build a business in the real estate arena.
