William Laing has taken on the role of Senior Sales Executive at Knight Frank’s head office after moving from The Agency in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, where he was a Property Partner.
Mr Laing has experience selling luxury residential property across the Sydney basin, concentrating on the Eastern Suburbs and both the Upper and Lower North Shore.
With a quality over quantity approach, Mr Laing’s track record saw 80 per cent of his sales in the past financial year achieved off-market, with one recent example being the sale of 5 Milton Avenue in Mosman for $11.25 million.
“I believe the opportunity at Knight Frank is unparalleled, as it is the only company-owned international prestige firm in Sydney with genuine relationships with their colleagues in prestige markets around the world,” he said.
“On a domestic level, the success of the One Barangaroo project provides a neat synthesis between my existing relationships and network of ultra-high net-worth (UHNW) clients. It’s an exciting time to join the Knight Frank Prestige Residential space.”
Knight Frank’s Head of Prestige Residential, Deborah Cullen, said she was very pleased to welcome Mr Laing to the team, following on from two other exciting appointments in recent weeks, with the addition of Adam Ross and Oliver Stillman.
“We are incredibly excited for William to join our dynamic team of luxury property experts,” she said.
“In addition to William’s experience in prestige residential sales, he also brings a background in private wealth and retail banking to Knight Frank, which assists him in servicing a complete trusted advisor role across his clients’ portfolio of property assets.
“We are expanding in response to the market, with demand for prestige residential real estate in Australia only continuing to grow, particularly in Sydney, and we see no sign of this abating in the future.”
The recently released Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index – Q2 2019, which tracks the movement in prime residential prices (the top five per cent of the housing market in most cities, by value) across 46 cities worldwide, revealed Sydney was ranked number one in Australia for luxury price growth, coming in at number 18 globally.
Sydney recorded growth in luxury residential prices of 2.5 per cent in the 12 months to June 2019 – an increase from 2.4 per cent in the 12 months to March, and significantly higher than the overall average annual prime price growth of 1.4 per cent across the 46 global cities.
Knight Frank’s Prestige Residential team will continue to focus primarily on prestige Australian residential sales of over A$3 million and assist UHNW clients with a full portfolio advisory service.
Knight Frank Australia Partner and Chief Executive Officer, Rod Leaver, said he was pleased to see the continuing growth in Sydney’s Prestige Residential team, particularly at a time when the market was exhibiting strength.
“This addition will see our presence in the Australian market grow further, strengthening the team and its offering to clients,” he said.
“Our prestige residential experts will work with our global network of agents positioned around the world, including in Asia Pacific, the UK, Africa and throughout Europe and the Middle East, as well as Douglas Elliman Fine Homes in the US.”
The continuing expansion of Knight Frank Australia’s Prestige Residential team follows the expansion of the firm’s private office to Australia.
Based in Sydney and led by Knight Frank joint national partners Sarah Harding and Kymbal Dunne, it will offer a fully-integrated residential and commercial real estate advisory team, which will advise and transact for high-net-worth clients, family offices and their advisers.
