The Raine & Horne Story

History

Raine & Horne Real Estate began in 1883, when Tom Raine and Joseph Horne opened the doors of their iconic property firm for the first time at Wentworth Court, Elizabeth Street in Sydney. The Raine & Horne Real Estate story has been closely tied to the growth and progress of the Australian real estate industry.

From the very start Raine & Horne Real Estate adhered to a set of business practices that have been maintained to this day – committing to personalised service of their clients’ property needs across sales, leasing, management and consulting.

Throughout the 1880’s, the responsibilities of a land agent were all-encompassing and included residential sales, valuations consultancy and rent collection. This broad background provided the foundation for Raine & Horne’s outstanding reputation and has helped hundreds of thousands of homebuyers buy into the ‘Great Australian Dream’.

Driven by the enthusiasm of property doyen Max Raine, the Raine & Horne Real Estate network stretched across Sydney from the 1970’s onwards. Not satisfied with the extent of the expansion, the Raine & Horne Board decided to become only the second property group to pursue a franchising business model. With its first franchised office opening in Liverpool NSW in 1976, the company has grown exponentially to boast offices in the ACT, Queensland, South Australia, Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia, as well as numerous offices globally.

Surviving two world wars, booms, busts, depressions and recessions over its 130 years in operation, Raine & Horne is now into its fourth generation of family ownership under current CEO Angus Raine.

 

The Product

Raine & Horne provides a comprehensive and integrated range of property services and consists of four distinct property service brands: Residential, Commercial, Rural and Your Broker financial services. 

Along with the expansion of its residential office network, which continues to be a key element in the company’s sustainability, the launch of Raine & Horne Commercial in 1984 concentrated on the commercial, industrial, retail and specialist property markets. Today, Raine & Horne Commercial offers Australia-wide coverage through a network of nearly 30 offices.

Meanwhile, trained and experienced Raine & Horne Rural agents continue to service the property needs of the farming, cropping, grazing and livestock sectors. Indeed, through its existence, the Raine & Horne brand has grown and developed alongside the great Australian rural way of life, which gives its agents a unique understanding of the specific needs of rural property clients.

In addition, the lending specialists at Your Broker complete the package of services on offer to Raine & Horne’s clients, with their team of accredited mortgage broking professionals providing a range of innovative financial services. The Your Broker business continues to grow and is now one of the best full brokerage opportunities available today.

With the strength of these four great brands, Raine & Horne has developed into an industry-leading, full service real estate network with an enviable reputation for expertise and an unwavering commitment to excellence and exceeding customer expectations.

 

Recent Developments

In October 2011, Raine & Horne announced a national re-brand, which included an overhaul of all media, incorporating digital platforms, marketing, and advertising and office signage. 

The re-brand focussed on bringing Raine & Horne’s famous yellow and black brand to life in fresh and innovative ways and saw the traditional colour palette replaced with a new combination of ‘gold and dark charcoal’.

At the core of the new identity is a unique hand-crafted ampersand symbol which represents Raine & Horne’s brand ideal, ‘Positive Partnerships’, encompassing the relationships between ‘vendors & buyers’, ‘agents & vendors’, ‘agents & buyers’, and ‘property managers & tenants’.

As part of the rebrand, Raine & Horne also adopted Quick Response Codes (QR codes) across its entire media, which direct customers to a designated page on the Internet. This allows homebuyers to view a property directly by using a smart-phone to scan a unique QR code from print advertisements and signboards, and means that homes will reach more people, more effectively.

The brand evolution has enabled Raine & Horne to deliver a clearly positioned communication platform, where every consumer touch point has been reviewed for customers, and this has helped set the brand apart from a competitive pack.

Add to this the Raine & Horne website (rh.com.au), which is consistently ranked in the top industry sites in Australia and is a sophisticated, well designed and easy to navigate site. With tens of thousands of properties displayed on rh.com.au every day, Raine & Horne’s specialist search facilities ensure that buyers looking for a particular property will always find what they want quickly and easily.

 

Promotion

Creative, effective advertising and highly visual marketing materials have always been the hallmarks of the Raine & Horne brand and while campaigns and media may vary to include radio, print, web, social media and television commercials, the distinctive Raine & Horne brand is the ongoing constant that drives people to the door.

Raine & Horne also has a strong commitment to playing a role in its communities, with many of the brand’s offices supporting groups, associations, and schools in their local areas. Apart from financial assistance, offices often supply branded marquees, people power and marketing advice to ensure the success of local events including fetes, fun runs, surf carnivals, and other fundraising activities.

 

Brand Values

The Raine & Horne brand essence is focussed on positive partnerships and is the integral force that helps the company deliver to its customers, engage business partners and carve out a strong position in a saturated real estate industry. It represents all that Raine & Horne is, in a clear and consistent manner, representing people, products, and processes.

For Raine & Horne agents, the power of the brand comes from the company’s comprehensive approach to business support and development, recruitment and retention programs, as well as the thorough training programs offered to all personnel by the highly regarded National Learning Academy. Raine & Horne recognises the need for a supportive changeover and start up process for new offices, which helps them become established in a competitive real estate marketplace. 

 

The Market

They say that an Australian’s home is his castle. Indeed, the security of owning the roof over our heads is one of the reasons Australians have enjoyed a long love affair with residential property and reportedly have one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world.

Certainly, property continues to play the role of barometer in the economic health and wealth of the country, with an increasing number of Australians making the decision to invest in their mortgage to help position them financially for the future. 

The financial value and security of home ownership – due to population pressures in cities and towns and lack of new housing – underpins long-term value projections for those homeowners who harbour investment plans.
What’s more, if estimates from the Housing Industry Association prove correct, it is suggested Australia will need 1.6 million new homes by 2020. 

 

Achievements

In 2013, Raine & Horne celebrated its 130th year in business, making it one of the oldest privately owned firms in the southern hemisphere. Inextricably linked to the Australian property market, Raine & Horne is continually rated as one of Australia’s highest profile real estate companies.

Now a multi-national organisation - with a network that has evolved and flourished over the years – Raine &Horne is one of the world’s most substantial real estate networks. These worldwide offices provide an invaluable source of local demographic and market information for the company’s clients, as well as a platform to market their property internationally in a cost-effective, direct, and well-informed way. All these services combined offer a complete professional real estate service to Australians of all socio-economic backgrounds. 

Raine & Horne’s commitment to customer care is another important element that elevates the brand in the marketplace. For sellers and buyers, this consistency of reputation and performance reduces risk, as people are more likely to contact a company they know and have a connection with. 

This excellent reputation throughout its entire history has seen the company record national sales figures that rank amongst the best in Australia.

 

Things you didn’t know about Raine & Horne

 

• Raine & Horne got its start looking after Vaucluse House and the expansive Wentworth Estate on behalf of the famous 19th Century politician, human rights activist and publisher William Charles Wentworth
• Raine & Horne secured another early break in 1883 when it sold the Cooper Estate on behalf of emancipist Daniel Cooper.
• Raine & Horne is still 100% Australian family owned and in the hands of its fourth generation.
• The first suburban office was opened in 1968 in the Roma Arcade in Double Bay, Sydney.
• The first franchise office was at Liverpool, Sydney in 1976.
• In 1982, the 100th office was opened in Armidale, NSW.
• The company’s longest serving employee was Mr Harold Horsley, who chalked up more than 60 years.
• Current CEO Angus Raine joined the firm in 1998 after 15 years working for various rival firms.