LJ Hooker has grown its presence in Far North Queensland with a new office in the Tablelands.
The Announcement:
Leading real estate network LJ Hooker has expanded within the Far North Queensland market with a new office in the Tablelands.
LJ Hooker Mareeba is an affiliate office to LJ Hooker Atherton and LJ Hooker Malanda, the three agencies under the leadership of Albi Homann.
The three-office presence shores up LJ Hooker’s profile across the Tablelands’ three biggest townships and allows Mr Homann’s team to provide greater coverage for sellers and property investors in the region.
“With the technology and support of LJ Hooker we’ve been able to make the expansion, confident that our service standards will stay the same,” Mr Homann said .
“While they’re only 20-minute drive from each other, being on the ground means a lot in regional communities and we’ll be able to provide more immediate and better service to Mareeba sellers and buyers as a result.”
The two markets also had distinct clientele, Mr Homann said.
“In Atherton, a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house will comfortably sell between $550,000-$600,000 while the same home in Mareeba would fetch in the low $500,000s,” he said.
When Mr Homann bought into the LJ Hooker network three years ago, he inherited 80 property managements. Across the three offices, LJ Hooker now manages more than 350 properties in the Tablelands, positioning them as the Tablelands’ leading property management agency.
The expansion comes on the eve of southerners’ annual migration to North Queensland to escape the chilly climates of Victoria and Southern NSW.
Mr Homann said the annual migration represented the peak selling period for home owners.
“We have a strong contingent of interstate investors in the area and a lot of that was driven by Covid, which our region largely avoided,” he said.
“We’re a rural lifestyle where you can combine town and acreage living with some of the best recreational lake activities you could find anywhere in Australia.
“People fall in love with the area when they visit and often want to buy a piece of it once they return home and do the sums.
“You can buy a nice home in the high $600,000s and rent it out for $700-$750 per week in a market where there’s a very low vacancy rate.”
LJ Hooker General Manager of Network Stephen Mutton welcomed Mr Homann’s decision to expand across the communities.
“LJ Hooker Atherton has grown from strength to strength under Albi’s leadership,” Mr Mutton said.
“By combining LJ Hooker’s offering across technology, marketing, insights and training with his team’s connections and market knowledge, he’s placed the business in an excellent position for expansion.
“We’re proud to support Albi and scores of other business owners to make their expansion goals a reality.”
