Denver-based real estate agent Re/Max views Europe as the motor of its international growth. The business, which operates on a franchise basis, already has 1,500 offices across 36 European countries and plans to expand further in Central Eastern Europe next year. 'We have now arrived at Poland's most eastern border, and in 2008 we plan to enter Bosnia, Macedonia, and Ukraine,' says Re/Max co-founder and chairman Frank Polzler. 'Europe is our best opportunity for growth in the coming five to ten years.' Re/Max entered Poland, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia in 2007.
Denver-based real estate agent Re/Max views Europe as the motor of its international growth. The business, which operates on a franchise basis, already has 1,500 offices across 36 European countries and plans to expand further in Central Eastern Europe next year. 'We have now arrived at Poland's most eastern border, and in 2008 we plan to enter Bosnia, Macedonia, and Ukraine,' says Re/Max co-founder and chairman Frank Polzler. 'Europe is our best opportunity for growth in the coming five to ten years.' Re/Max entered Poland, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia in 2007.
The company first came to Europe about ten years ago and is mainly active in residential property. Commercial property activity currently accounts for 10% of RE/Max's business in Europe. 'After getting a footprint in every European country, we will develop our commercial real estate operations further,' Polzler says.
He was born in Austria in 1933 and later emigrated to Toronto. He founded Re/Max in 1980 together with his business partner Walter Schneider. Polzler eventually came back to Austria to lead the expansion of Re/Max into Europe.
Polzler believes that Europe's real estate market lags 20 years behind the US, and that Re/Max will revolutionise the way things are done across the European continent. 'In Canada or the US about 96% or 97% of the property transactions go through realtors,' he says. 'But in Europe this figure is down at 35%'. Polzler believes this is where Re/Max's growth in Europe will come from.
Charles Lemire, who is Re/Max chief operating officer and managing director of Re/Max Europe, thinks that the real estate advisory sector in Europe will see more consolidation in the coming years, similar to what has happened in North America over the last two decades. 'With the increase of cross-border activity in Europe, small local advisors will be struggling to survive, and bigger firms will merge, leading to the formation of few major players', says Lemire. He believes Re/Max offers local advisors the possibility to survive by joining the Re/Max network and working under the umbrella of a franchise.
