Raine & Horne has released a new coffee table book highlighting the business’s 140-year journey in Australian real estate.
From Homesteads to High-Rises: Celebrating 140 Years of Raine & Horne was led by Raine & Horne, Executive Chairman, Angus Raine, who wanted to bring the company’s story to life.
Mr Raine said the book details the history of the business that dates back to 23 May 1883.
“To provide context, Raine & Horne boasts a history predating prominent financial services giant Commonwealth Bank and renowned retailers Coles and Myer,” Mr Raine said.
“The origins of our firm trace back even further than Qantas, the flying kangaroo, which only took flight after World War I.”
Mr Raine said 2023 marks 140 years in business for the company.
“As one of the oldest privately-owned firms in the southern hemisphere and Australia’s oldest family-owned real estate company, Raine & Horne occupies a unique place in corporate history,” he said.
“Our company’s resilience has enabled us to overcome numerous challenges, including economic downturns, world wars, and pandemics, solidifying our position as a global industry leader.”
Today, Raine & Horne’s business extends across residential, commercial, and rural property markets, financial services and international territories.
With more than 3000 employees in Australasia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Asia.
Raine & Horne’s name is synonymous with real estate in Australia and is credited with a long list of industry-first innovations.
This includes being the first real estate franchise network in Australia to use Facebook to market properties, and one of the few businesses to start taking advantage of burgeoning Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies as early as 2017.
Mr Raine said they continue to invest in a diverse talent pool.
“We have consistently embraced cutting-edge technology, such as digitalisation and AI, to maintain our market leadership,” he said.
“Whilst we are celebrating this significant milestone, we are not resting on our laurels and we continue to grow with over 25 new office openings by year’s end, as well as the continual launch of industry-first products and services.
“We are also confident that readers will enjoy the captivating story of business and real estate triumph outlined in From Homesteads to High-Rises: Celebrating 140 Years of Raine & Horne that would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of the hundreds of principals and thousands of staff members in our international network.”
The book was designed with a contemporary style and visual language making it ideal for a coffee table book.
Publisher, Sam Grimmer said Raine & Horne’s rich history offered a vast archive of historical and contemporary images.
“As is often said, ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’, and we have used around 300 images, so combined with 40,000 words, we are telling a pretty big story,” Mr Grimmer said.
“There’s nothing worse for a book’s audience than finding an intriguing historical picture with no explanation, so we’ve used captioning throughout the book to contextualise the imagery and tie it back to Raine & Horne’s history.”
In creating the book, a number of images were repaired and retouched from newspaper clippings and pictorial images that were from many years ago.
“Books of this kind take time to get right, and there was plenty of back and forth to reach the desired result, but from Angus Raine, through to the marketing and creative teams, all the support staff in between, there was a common desire to leverage everyone’s specific expertise to make a lasting and special contribution to the long history of Raine & Horne,” Mr Grimmer said.
Initially scheduled for release closer to Raine & Horne’s 140th anniversary on 23 May 2023, the book’s completion was temporarily postponed due to the untimely death of Max Raine in February 2023.
