The growth in commission income of the A list of Leapfrog Property Group agents was way ahead of the rate of growth in home prices in the past year says Bruce Swain, managing director of the four-year-old national real estate company.
 
“Our top 100 agents recorded an increase of 15% in commission earnings over 2010.
 
“This was an impressive performance by our agents – not least because it was achieved in a languid market in which year-on-year house price growth and sales have  been little more than five per cent, and in which sellers have been forced to drop asking prices by an average of 10 per cent,” says Bruce.
 
“It is also an illustration of the steady growth in Leapfrog’s penetration of a highly competitive, recession-impacted South African homes market in which only one in three agents is still active compared with the halcyon days of the mid-2000s,” he adds.
 
A big factor underpinning Leapfrog’s success is that it is a recession-era company.
 
“Leapfrog was established in mid-2007, at the start of the recession, and we have thus always challenged the status quo of the homes market and done things differently,” says Bruce.
 
“For instance, we were not only the first national empowered real estate group in South Africa but also the only company to have created wealth-building opportunities for our agents – by way of share investment schemes, recruitment annuity income and other incentives.
 
“This strategy has enabled us to attract quality franchisees and agents to the group – people who have enabled Leapfrog to grow in a recession that forced many market players to downsize,” Bruce concludes.
 
Top performing Leapfrog agents from all parts of the country received awards at the company’s recent 2010/11 Convention at the Spier Wine Estate in the Western Cape.