Greece Sotheby’s International Realty, a luxury real estate firm based in Athens, Greece, today announces that the Sotheby’s International Realty® brand reported that in 2016 its affiliated brokers and sales professionals achieved approximately $95 billion in global sales volume, the highest annual sales volume performance in the history of the brand, driven largely by a brand record of over 127,000 transactions.
Global Growth
The Sotheby’s International Realty® brand also reported growth across its global network, which now encompasses nearly 70 countries and territories worldwide. At year-end, the network totaled 880 offices and more than 20,000 sales associates.
“2016 proved to be yet another record year for the Sotheby’s International Realty brand,” said Philip White, president and chief executive officer, Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. “In just 12 years, we have grown from $4.2 billion to $95 billion in sales volume. Our brand has achieved exponential growth, and I am immensely proud of the hard work and dedication from our affiliate member companies, their independent sales associates and our dedicated worldwide staff. This is a true testament to the strength and international footprint of this extraordinary brand.”
Sotheby’s International Realty, the world’s leader in luxury real estate brand continued growth in Europe, entering the countries of Austria, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Montenegro. The brand also expanded in the Asia-Pacific region through affiliations in Fiji and Shanghai and continued to grow in Hong Kong and greater Thailand. Finally, the brand expanded its presence in the Caribbean with the addition of affiliates in Roatan and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.
“We are really excited to be affiliated with such an extraordinary brand” said Savvas Savvaidis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Greece Sotheby’s International Realty. “In our first four months of operations we are registering strong demand for high-end properties located both on the islands and on mainland Greece. Combining one of the most sophisticated marketing plans offered in the real estate market we are able to be showcasing our distinguished portfolio of properties to the most influential clientele in the world. We are actually acting as Greece’s ambassadors to the world!” continues Savvas Savvaidis.
Innovative Technology
The Sotheby’s International Realty brand is at the forefront of interactive technology with the introduction in 2016 of 3D Tours with Virtual Reality capability on sothebysrealty.com. Additionally, the site saw the most traffic in its history with nearly 22 million visits, a 54% increase year-over-year.
The brand also launched the first luxury real estate app for Apple TV, featuring professionally curated high-resolution photography and high-definition video giving consumers the opportunity to explore homes on a screen larger than ever before.
“The countries of origin of our buyer’s are mainly the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Russia and the US where Sotheby’s International Realty has a dominant market presence” says Natalie Leontaraki, Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer at Greece Sotheby’s International Realty. Due to the excellent positioning of the firm in new markets as well as our promotional strategy we have been receiving a growing number of leads from China, the Middle East and recently Turkey” continues Natalie.
The Sotheby’s International Realty brand was the No. 1 real estate company represented in two of the six categories that comprise the annual REAL Trends/The Wall Street Journal “Top Thousand” report. Sotheby’s claimed 45 of the top 250 sales associates in the Individual Sales Volume category, more than any other real estate company.
Greece Sotheby’s International Realty, which has offices in Athens, offers exclusive Sotheby’s International Realty marketing, advertising and referral services designed to attract well-qualified buyers to the firm’s property listings. In addition, the firm and its clients benefit from an association with the Sotheby’s auction house, which promotes real estate referral opportunities with auction house clientele. Property listings from Greece Sotheby’s International Realty also are marketed on the sothebysrealty.com global website, as well as on the firm’s local website, sothebysrealty.gr