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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Five Ray White Rural offices on the Darling Downs and Granite Belt have been brought under a single name. Elite Agent reported on Thursday 1 October 2026 that the offices in Pittsworth, Warwick, Dalby, Chinchilla and Stanthorpe now trade together as Ray White Rural Condamine Group, a business of 35 staff named for the Condamine River.
It was not the only multi-office launch of the week. On 2 October the same publication reported the start of C21 Aspire Group, a Century 21 business with offices in Albany Creek, North Lakes and Narangba and a fourth opening in Fitzgibbon, a launch Real Estate Business also covered on 6 October. Both stories describe the same shift: the unit of an agency network in Queensland is increasingly a group of offices under common ownership, not a single shopfront.
Sources: Elite Agent, 1 and 2 October 2026; Real Estate Business, 6 October 2026.
What changed on the Darling Downs
The five offices were already run by the same directors. What has changed is that they no longer present themselves as five separate businesses. The group's directors told Elite Agent the single name gives complete uniformity and reflects the strength of operating as one.
"Bringing our five offices under one name gives us complete uniformity," one of the directors, James Croft, said in the report.
The group is large by rural standards. Elite Agent describes it as the highest-performing business in Ray White's Rural and Livestock network, and its industry newsletter of 6 September reported that the group had grown from three offices to five within a year, with its Warwick office also ranked ninth nationally in the rural network. The directors say the combined business now holds the largest property database on the Darling Downs, a claim that is theirs and has not been independently measured.
Related readBundaberg, Childers, Mackay: agency networks move into the regionsIts work is broader than house sales. The report lists rural property sales and management, residential property, broadacre cropping country around Dalby, feedlots and dairies near Warwick and the vineyards of Stanthorpe, along with full property management. A second director described the group as a one-stop shop with experienced teams across the region.
A four-office launch on Brisbane's northside
C21 Aspire Group is a different kind of business in a different market: suburban residential sales and property management in the corridor between Brisbane's northern suburbs and Moreton Bay. Its selling principal has nine years in real estate after a career in information technology and business ownership, according to both reports.
The group has three offices operating and a fourth, in Fitzgibbon, that Elite Agent said was opening in the week of its 2 October report. Its stated method is to pair younger agents with colleagues who have 25 to more than 35 years in the industry.
"We joined Century 21 because our ambition extends beyond simply changing a sign above the door," the principal, Gary Gaurav, said in the Elite Agent report.
Century 21 Australia's head of growth, Ian Carter, said the group's ambition matched the network's, which he described as connecting a footprint of 82 countries and territories with local communities.
| Group | Network | Offices | Main work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Condamine Group | Ray White Rural | Pittsworth, Warwick, Dalby, Chinchilla, Stanthorpe | Rural and residential sales, property management |
| C21 Aspire Group | Century 21 | Albany Creek, North Lakes, Narangba, Fitzgibbon | Suburban sales and property management |
Sources: Elite Agent, 1 and 2 October 2026; Real Estate Business, 6 October 2026.
Why agencies are forming groups
A group spreads costs that a single office carries alone. Marketing staff, a trust accountant, a property management team leader and a compliance officer can serve five offices nearly as easily as one. Since 1 July 2026 every agency selling property has needed an anti-money-laundering program, and a group whose offices belong to one licensed business has a single program to write and maintain instead of five.
Related readHow an agency is chosen: what a Queensland seller can check firstA group also shares buyers. A purchaser who misses a property in Dalby can be shown one in Chinchilla by a colleague in the same business, and the fee stays inside the group. The Condamine directors' emphasis on a combined database is a statement of that advantage.
Scale helps with people as well. A larger business can offer an agent a move between offices or a path into management without the agent leaving. One of the Condamine directors told Elite Agent that seeing staff succeed was the point of the business and that the group would keep creating opportunities for them to develop.
The trend is visible in the networks' own rankings. Ray White Queensland's awards, reported in early September, have separate categories for multi-office businesses. And on 7 October Real Estate Business published an interview with the founders of two Place offices in inner Brisbane, New Farm and Bulimba, under a headline that put the pair at $50 million and counting. The founders credited collaboration between the offices, discipline and culture for the result.
What the law asks of a business with several offices
Queensland's licensing rules apply to each place where an agency does business, and they shape how a group is staffed.
According to the Office of Fair Trading's guidance on places of business, the principal licensee must be in charge at the registered office. Every other place of business must have a licensed person in charge, or in some circumstances a registered real estate salesperson, and nobody may be in charge of more than one place. A five-office group therefore needs at least five people qualified to run an office, one of them the principal licensee.
Related readCo-operative, flat fee or franchise: networks court local agenciesThe guidance places limits on using a salesperson in that role. A salesperson cannot be in charge at the principal office, and one whose registration carries conditions must not run a place of business. Two premises count as one place only if they are directly attached or share a boundary and are not divided by a public road.
- Name a person in chargeA licensed agent, or in limited cases a registered salesperson, who is not in charge anywhere else.
- Tell the regulatorNotify the Office of Fair Trading of the new place of business within 14 days.
- Keep the papers thereHold copies of the business's licence and of each employee's licence or registration at the premises.
The Office does not approve an office's location, and its guidance notes that council rules still apply. The requirement to keep copies of licences at each premises, and to show them to a client or inspector who asks, comes from the Office's rules about holding a licence.
One name and what clients see
For clients, a common name across towns changes how they find the business more than how they deal with it.
A seller in Stanthorpe still appoints an agent on the prescribed Form 6, and a landlord in Narangba still signs a management appointment. What a group name adds is the knowledge that the same business stands behind the office in the next town. The licensed entity can be confirmed on the Office of Fair Trading's free public register, which lists the licence holder's name, the place of business and whether the licence is current.
Trust money is unaffected by branding. Deposits and rents are held in trust accounts opened by the principal licensee and audited under the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014. A group may operate one account or several, but the obligations are the same for each.
A group of offices is one business with several doors. The law still wants a named, qualified person standing behind each one.
Other changes in the same week
The first week of October brought a third Queensland announcement. Real Estate Business reported on 6 October that Belle Property's office at Samford, north-west of Brisbane, has a new leader and new premises nearby. Elite Agent's newsletter of 3 October said the incoming principal had been the network's top agent nationally by commission income for three consecutive years and had more than 20 years of local experience.
That is a single office and not a group, but it belongs to the same season. Networks and their offices tend to settle structures, names and leadership at the start of spring so that the changes are in place for the busiest listing months.
What comes next
The Condamine group has not announced further offices, though its growth from three to five in a year suggests a business still building. C21 Aspire's Fitzgibbon office gives it four locations along one corridor, and its principal has spoken of ambitions beyond a change of signage.
Whether groups keep forming will depend partly on the market. A slower period tends to favour them: an owner of a single office who wants to sell or step back finds a ready buyer in a neighbouring group, and the group gains a town it did not cover.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
