Keller Williams’ ambitious global expansion plans

Signing of international agreements, photo courtesy of Keller Williams

Expanding the Keller Williams brand

Keller Williams Realty announced today that it will continue its international franchise expansion plans to include Indonesia and South Africa, after announcing earlier this year their international debut starting with Vietnam.

KW Worldwide President, Chris Heller, said, “We welcome aboard our partners in Indonesia and the Southern Africa region, which includes South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, and Mozambique. We are excited to see them experience the same momentum and growth we have seen in North America.”

Preparations for the newest international market centers are already underway and are located in Pretoria, South Africa and Jakarta, Indonesia.

“We are extremely excited and cannot wait for our opportunity to offer the South African real estate industry the Keller Williams value proposition,” said master franchisor, Johan Gouws. “We simply cannot carry on in the South African real estate industry the way things are now. Keller Williams is the company of change for us; the company for agents, by agents. Over the past year [my master franchising partner, Niel Cronje] and myself have become very fond of our Keller Williams friends and their value system of ‘God, family, then business.’”

In addition to Gouws’ involvement, Tertius Zitzke, CEO and owner of AccTech Systems, is the partner responsible for managing the technology and will be integrating the South African and Keller Williams systems. Completing the master franchise team is real estate industry icon Stefan Swanepoel, the New York Times Best-Selling Author of Surviving Your Serengeti: 7 Skills to Master Business & Life and renowned inspirational speaker on topics including leadership, personal development, technology, and annual real estate trends.

The two new KW Worldwide teams, led by Gouws, Cronje, Zitzke, and Swanepoel in the Southern Africa region and Tony Eddy, Chairman and CEO of Tony Eddy & Associates in Indonesia, join nearly 77,000 associates and 675 offices in the United States and Canada, where the company has been franchising since 1991. Eddy has over 14 years in the real estate project marketing consulting business, covering the Jakarta and Bali markets.

More countries to come

In a statement, Keller Williams said that negotiations with potential franchisees in several other countries continue as they intend to add 50,000 associates worldwide over the next 10 years.

“We’ve been asked why we’ve chosen worldwide expansion in the current market, and the answer is simple: momentum! Our proven models and systems allow our associates and offices to succeed in any real estate market,” said Willis. “As we continue to see years of unprecedented growth and technological innovation, expanding our opportunities abroad signifies the next logical step towards our growth as a company.”

While there are already many international brands based in America, the expansion of Keller Williams is of particular interest not only because they are the second largest brokerage in America, but because of their use of international team members to do more than translate languages, rather the international road map for expansion includes cultural translation, and a lengthy process of understanding other countries’ laws and customs, which requires nuances experts on their team that lay the groundwork for each country over a matter of months, or in some cases, years.

Look for KW to be extremely ambitious about their expansion plans, with next countries coming soon.