Keller Williams announced plans to expand its franchise footprint in South America by opening a new “master franchise” in Guyana on Thursday.
According to the brokerage, the new franchise, which will be branded KW Guyana, is expected to open during the second quarter of 2022. This will be Keller William’s ninth master franchise in South America. Keller Williams currently has offices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, Suriname and Uruguay.
The new franchise will be led by regional operating principal Stefan John.
John founded D&J Group Inc., a company focused on logistics and real estate services catered to the oil and gas industry and has nearly a decade of experience facilitating real estate brokerage services throughout Guyana.
“The real estate market is growing bigger than any other industry besides oil and gas in Guyana,” said John. “KW will be the preferred agency that everyone goes to, mainly because the agents will be trained better than anyone else.”
In addition, John believes that the technology and marketing services offered by Keller Williams are far superior to what is offered by other brokerages in the country.
In 2021, Keller Williams Worldwide (KWW) saw an 88.7% increase in sales volume for transactions completed outside of the U.S. and Canada, for a total volume of $12.1 billion.
“We closed out 2021 with continued record-breaking global growth,” William E. Soteroff, the president of KWW, the international division of kwx, the holding company of KW, said in a statement. “As of March 1, we now have more than 15,000 agents across 54 worldwide regions, representing a strong foundation to continue to expand our market share aggressively in 2022.”
KWW is currently looking into more expansion opportunities across Africa, Central and South America, Central and Eastern Europe, and throughout Asia. Criteria for new licensees includes having a qualified leadership team grounded in the “Keller Williams culture,” located in an area with government, banking and judicial system stability and a higher maturity level for a real estate market.
The brokerage announced its expansion into Sint Maarten, is sixth Caribbean location, in early February.
Keller Williams is the world’s largest real estate franchise by agent count.
