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Keller Williams has opened its first master franchise in Germany, according to an announcement early Thursday.
KW Germany will operate out of Berlin and serve Germany’s top seven real estate markets, Keller Williams Worldwide President Bill Soteroff explained.
William Soteroff | Keller Williams
“Ten years since the launch of KWW, our continued rapid pace of multinational growth showcases how entrepreneurs globally are thriving at Keller Williams,” Soteroff said in a prepared statement. “And, today we’re excited to announce our expansion into Germany, our 18th master franchise in Europe.”
The master franchise is slated to open during the second quarter of 2023, with Regional Operating Principal Swen Nicolaus spearheading the launch strategy. Nicolaus is a well-known real estate and finance executive with experience at Molo Finance, J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Funding Circle, a small business lending platform.
“With Swen, we have found an ideal partner who will implement our proven systems and models, world-class training and the robust benefits of Command — our smart, multilingual CRM-plus solution to grow real estate businesses across Germany,” Soteroff said of Nicolaus’ expertise.
Swen Nicolaus | LinkedIn
Meanwhile, Nicolaus said he’s excited to bring Keller Williams to “Europe’s most successful and largest economy” where “the spotlight is always on the entrepreneurial realtor.”
As of Jan. 31, KWW’s European operations have 160 market centers and 4,806 agents across the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, France, Monaco, Poland, Greece, Czech Republic, Romania, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Albania and Switzerland.
Between Jan. 31, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2022, the agent count outside the U.S. and Canada increased 20.5 percent to 18,000. Those agents closed 77,800 transactions (+22.5 percent year over year) worth $15.7 billion in sales volume (+29.3 percent year over year). KWW agents logged 88,700 projected closings (+18.9 percent) in 2022, worth $12.8 billion (+17.3 percent).
KWW now has 287 market centers across 50 regions representing more than 18,000 agents and is exploring further expansion opportunities across Africa, Central and South America, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia.
“In 2013, we first set forth with our vision to expand outside of the U.S. and Canada,” KW Executive Chairman Gary Keller said of KWW’s growth. “And today, we’re excited to report the demand is only growing increasingly stronger for our agent-centric culture, models, systems, training and technology.”
