Mr Thompson has spent the past 12 months as chief operating officer and moves up to CEO following record Adelaide price growth.
The Announcement:
On the back of the strongest recorded price growth in Adelaide’s history, recovering from the marketplace’s 50 per cent decline in transactions during the peak of Covid-19 in 2020, a dramatic market turnaround has seen South Australia go from strength to strength in 2021.
Adelaide gained widespread recognition earlier this year when announced as the 3rd most liveable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report. Assessed on stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, Adelaide’s strong response to Covid-19 and border control cemented the city as a safe haven.
This helped Adelaide come out top in Australia in the Liveability Index, with Melbourne dropping to 8th place after coming in at No. 2 in the most previous report in 2019.
Driven largely by a return of investors and expats returning to SA in droves, Ouwens Casserly sales volume market share grew 19 per cent in the financial year 2020 to 2021, with sales value growing 28 per cent despite uncertain and turbulent times across Australia.
The business also experienced an increase in presentations, appraisals, calls, the values of properties and commission, as well as observing an overall higher clearance on auction day.
“I am delighted to announce John Thompson as CEO. John displays exceptional leadership skills and over the past year as Ouwens Casserly COO, John has demonstrated a genuine commitment to our values of passion, precision, authenticity and optimism,” said Nathan Casserly.
Mr Thompson has offered highly valuable support to both himself and fellow MD, Alex Ouwens over the past year.
He is highly experienced in developing and implementing operational and financial strategy and tactics, along with coaching and creating a supportive environment for employees.
“John has had a significant impact as COO over the last 12 months. Working closely with his team, John has led efficiency initiatives that allow our high-performing agents and property managers to spend more time doing what they do best, client management,” said Alex Ouwens.
“John has made a hugely positive impact at Ouwens Casserly. He has increased business efficiency, implemented our paperless listing to settlement process, and partnered with suppliers to better equip our people with the right tools and platforms to achieve success,” said Mr Ouwens.
Nathan Casserly said, “John’s wealth of experience, combined with his transparency and approachable attitude make him the perfect CEO for Ouwens Casserly. John has already proven his outstanding capacity to lead OC through a strong growth phase, simultaneously developing our new business plan to drive OC into the next chapter of our story.“
With the elevation of John to CEO, Alex and I will be able to spend more time in the marketplace, work closer with our sales and property management teams, and focus of growing our project marketing division.
“In the CEO role, John will work closely with the Advisory Board to drive our strategic plan, and be hands on in leading our central support team across Marketing, People and Culture, Operations and Finance, ensuring our values of authenticity, optimism, passion and precision continue to feed into everything we do.”
“I would like to thank Nathan, Alex and the board for providing me with this opportunity. I am honoured to be appointed as CEO and excited to lead Ouwens Casserly through its next phase, contributing to their ongoing success,” said Mr Thompson.
“Ouwens Casserly has a great business model. Clients reap the rewards from the expertise of a large multi-office agency, but with the exclusivity and personal approach of a boutique agency. Ouwens Casserly are uniquely positioned to capitalise on the changing real estate landscape.
The industry is on the verge of rapid evolution through technology and digitalisation, regulatory impacts, changing consumer behaviours and with dynamic economic factors at play.”
“My priority as I transition across is consolidating organisational divisions to ensure alignment at Ouwens Casserly. The business ecosystem will establish a network advantage of shared knowledge and values, working together towards the achievement of our strategic objectives,” said Mr Thompson.
“We want to maintain our position as an attraction business, and further increase our presence and market share whilst ensuring we are fully leveraging our unique business model.”
“If we can realise greater alignment of and collaboration between our Sales, Property Management, OC Projects and Fresh Home Loans businesses’, we will create better outcomes for our customers and OC.”
OC has accomplished in such a short amount of time, to have become one of Australia’s fastest growing independent agencies, specialising in sales, rentals and projects,” Mr Casserly said.
“We take the trust and respect earnt in our brand and our people very seriously. We are driven by our sole purpose in helping people realise their dreams and aspirations through property”.
Source: Ouwens Casserly
