[photopress:century21_1.jpg,full,alignright]Century 21 China officially took over the 16 branches of Shanghai Bonity Property Group yesterday continuing the consolidation that is happening in real estate.
Century 21 is one of the biggest conglomerations of real estate companies in the world. The name comes from the Century 21 Exposition held in Seattle, Washington in 1962 which is a splendid bit of trivia. The American headquarters is in the euphoniously named Parsippany in New Jersey. The company is very large. Something like 8,100 independently owned and operated offices with more than 140,000 sales people around the world in more than 40 countries and territories.
Century21 China, which is now the second-biggest realtor in the city after Shanghai Centaline Property Agency, will accelerate its franchised operation by adding another 30 outlets to 250 in Shanghai in the coming year. This is not so much expansion as the consolidation of an industry under pressure from central government range of measures to prevent the real estate market from getting further overheated.
In fact there are now a lot less real estate agents in Shanghai than there were in 2002. Then there were over 20,000. Now, depednding on how you count it, there are something like 6,000.
Source: Shanghai Daily