North: US property agents to create 150 jobs

American style home buying and selling came to the North today courtesy of a company which said it will grab 30% of the domestic property market.

RE/MAX said it would be opening around 30 branches across the province creating some 150 jobs – or what it called employment opportunities.

It said it intended to revolutionise domestic property transactions giving home-owners and house hunters a better deal with less stress.

Since being founded in the the USA 32 years ago, the franchise operation has spread through 58 countries and claims to have helped more than two million families to move house.

In the Republic 7,000 homes were bought and sold through RE/MAX in the past 12 months and the company predicted the total would rise to 11,000 in the coming year.

Speaking at the launch in Belfast the company’s regional director for Ireland, Mark Campbell said: “We already know that our impact on the domestic property market in Northern Ireland will be considerable.

“We are planning to capture 30% of the market. This is the target we aim for wherever we operate, and it is a target we will achieve – nobody in the world sells more real estate than RE/MAX.”

Mr Campbell said the company would bring a new level of integrity and dynamism to the property business in the North.

“We will raise the standard of domestic property dealing substantially. People will very soon notice us,” he said.

And he predicted: “We will turn selling and buying a home, often seen as a stressful experience, into a really enjoyable one.”