After six years working for Ray White Rural Queensland, Jez McNamara has become a director of the business during one of its best ever years as demand for agricultural property rises.
"My entire real estate career has been Ray White Rural," says Jez. "I grew up in Warwick and went to school in Toowoomba, and then spent a lot of time in my late teens out at Longreach, jackarooing. I then managed some cattle properties in the Brisbane Valley, and then went and worked for an Australian-owned company based over in the UK for five years. It was an investment company managing high net worth individuals' portfolios, so everything from shopping centers to breweries and oil and gas. It was great, but it was one of those jobs where you never got any time for yourself and I hadn't taken a holiday in five years. Working in London is not your working holiday."
In July 2009, Jez returned to Australia and got his real estate license, starting with Ray White Rural the next month. "We actually sold some assets with Ray White Rural Queensland and I was really impressed with how they did it," he says. "I'd been buying and selling property all around the world and I suppose their methods and their reporting were something that I found pretty good. I actually had information to make a decision on. So I wanted to get back into something rural and also in Australia, but also in charge of the hours I worked." Ownership in the business provides him with that flexibility, he said.
Jez mostly sells agricultural property. "We sell everything from 1 million acre places in the Territory right through to 5 acre lifestyle properties 20 kms out of Brisbane city, but our specialty area is agriculture. We handle a lot of different sales across south east Queensland, so a lot of lifestyle properties but also a lot of high-end intensive agriculture, things like macadamia nuts and strawberry farms."
Asked how the agricultural market is currently traveling, Jez says it's solid. "There's a lot more transactions happening and a lot more interested parties than there was. It's always a little bit behind the rest of the market. Queensland is still affected by drought, but the market is looking good and we've got good commodities prices. There's definitely a demand from overseas investors but it's still Australian companies and Australian Mum and Dads buying these properties. Cattle can be quite strong but dairy seems to be where there's a lot of investment going on in South East Queensland right now."
Bruce Douglas, Principal and Managing Director of Ray White Rural, said the last 12 months have been very strong and extremely satisfying, and he welcomed Jez as a partner. "He is a talented and driven property marketer and his rural background has been the secret to his success - tenacity, resourcefulness, sheer hard work and country ethics," said Douglas.