Judy Goodger was one of the first agents to grasp the implications of increasing demand for Brisbane's finest homes in residential precincts, from the riverfront mansion to acreage retreats, and penthouse apartments to luxury inner-city residences.

By targeting these specific areas and concentrating on higher-end properties, Judy is now one of the leaders in the Brisbane prestige real estate industry with an unsurpassed billion dollar portfolio of premium residential sales, earning recognition as one of the most successful real estate sales consultants in Queensland and awarded 'Salesperson of the Year' by the REIQ (Real Estate Institute of Queensland).

WILLIAMS MEDIA spoke to Managing Director Place Estate Agents and Director of Place New Farm, Judy Goodger, about her 10 years with the company and the upcoming move to their new premises on James Street.

What have been the biggest changes you have seen over the last 10 years?

In 2010, in the shadow of the GFC with many real estate office closures, I became a partner / owner of Place Estate Agents and opened our New Farm office with just a couple of agents in what had been a local fish and chip shop before quickly expanding into the adjacent ice cream parlour. Since then we have completed over 2,500 local sales, including 900 successful auctions totalling over $2,500,000,000 in value.  

We embraced the challenge and became a part of the New Farm and Teneriffe peninsula community, developing and cementing relationships with local people – helping them find their happy places. 

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Another big change has been the standards of presentation of properties, with most of my clients now choosing to do professional styling, magnificent videos and high-quality photography along with online digital marketing. This is compared to when I first started in the industry, where most of my marketing was done via paper advertising and window display cards, believe it or not! The growth of social media within the real estate sector has been exponential over the past couple of years which I have found very exciting. It’s something that I am really enjoying. Lots of fun!!

What are your most memorable achievements and milestones over the last 10 years?

There are so many…

Achieving the highest house sale in New Farm with the sale of a Welsby Street riverfront property for $10.5 million in 2016, a record that still stands today; it’s a home I feel honoured to have sold.

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But what I am most proud of is assisting our agents grow into the industry leading figures throughout the Brisbane inner city markets that they specialise in. I truly love sharing in the success they are achieving on a daily basis! 

We also have a large Property Management portfolio with a total asset value currently in excess of $350,000,000. The team are also very excited about moving to the new prestigious location in James Street, with the enormous exposure and increased foot traffic this location will generate.

The culture of Place is something truly wonderful. It’s a culture that you can feel and is impossible to replicate - we often say, it’s just like one big happy family!

After 10 years of hard work and many successes, everyone deserves to work in a beautiful new place with a gorgeous new fit out. I can’t wait until we open our doors later this year!

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What was the deciding factor to move to James Street?

We literally needed more space and the timing was perfect.

Place Corporate office at East Brisbane was also looking for a new HQ space and both of our leases were up so it was the perfect opportunity to join forces to acquire the iconic site in the incredibly popular precinct.

James Street is so iconic for Brisbane and the David Jones building was available with its huge exposure to not only James St, but the thousands of cars travelling down McLachlan Street each and every day.

With its fabulous restaurants, bars, coffee shops, fresh food and luxury boutiques James Street is such a lifestyle location and fits the Place brand absolutely perfectly.

We feel that the very visible location will further cement Place’s strong connectivity and relationships within the local community.

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What are your predictions for the next 10 years?

I have been working in real estate for 28 years and have been through many types of markets - floods, stock market crashes, the GFC and now Coronavirus, but I have always found myself very busy.

It’s really simple… I just keep talking to people in the community and building those relationships. At the end of the day, there will always be people wanting to buy, sell and rent property.

As for my predictions, I see demand going up and up for both sales and property management in Brisbane. We live in such a beautiful city and the New Farm/Teneriffe peninsula is always in high demand and represents such great value for those from our southern states.

In fact, we have a buyer flying from Perth to look at a property for sale with a price tag in excess of $15 million.

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