Feb. 26, 2021Marubeni CorporationMarubeni Real Estate Development Co. Ltd.Agent Growth Corporation
Marubeni Corporation ("Marubeni"), Marubeni Real Estate Development Co., Ltd. ("MRED") a wholly owned subsidiary of Marubeni, and Agent Growth Corporation, doing business as "Keller Williams Japan, ("KWJ") will be expanding the unique business model of Keller Williams (“KW”), the largest real estate brokerage franchise in the United States, throughout Japan.
Marubeni has business interests in various real estate-related businesses, from the sourcing and development of profitable real estate projects to property asset management, including more specialized categories such as the structuring and management of real estate funds and the planning and development of project management opportunities which include both facility management and operations. In January 2020, Marubeni invested in KWJ, which holds a master license for KW in Japan, in order to further expand our real estate businesses by initiating the following. MRED established Marubeni Real Estate Agency Co., Ltd. ("MREA") in November of the same year as a newly incorporated company focused on fully expanding KW’s business and concluded a sublicense agreement with KWJ to open Marubeni Group's first brokerage office or “market center” ("MC") to be called KW Tokyo Bay. With a vision of introducing KW’s unique business model to Japan and working with other industry leaders to revitalize the real estate brokerage industry, KWJ will expand its nationwide network of sublicensed MC’s with the support of the Marubeni Group.
It is common practice in the US for a real estate agent (“agent”) to work as an independent contractor earning compensation based on securing the best deal and acting as a fiduciary on behalf of the property buyer or seller. In addition, a KW agent can enter into an outsourcing agreement or independent contract agreement with a MC and work their own hours and from any location and earn compensation according to their ability through a performance based full commission remuneration system. In addition, new employment opportunities are created as many people choose to become an agent as a side job. Agents can take advantage of KW's business systems that help them manage their customer data, register property information, upload property listings to the company’s website, manage transactions and transaction pipeline information, as well as attend KW's signature training programs that have helped increase the productivity of agents throughout the world. Finally, KW's global network of MC’s and agents can be leveraged by our Japanese agents and MC owners to further develop their businesses.
Marubeni, MRED, and KWJ plan to expand KW throughout Japan by offering a business model that provides an environment that is both easy for agents to work in and provides flexible alternatives for improving human resource utilization and people development methods, while responding quickly to the recent changes in work styles.
（*）Established in 1983. KW's training methodology has been highly evaluated and ranked by many top agents and office owners. In 2019, the company ranked first in the world in the number of agents as a single real estate brokerage franchise company, and ranked first in the U.S. in the number of transactions and transactions value (1,165,738 and US$36 billion respectively). KW has expanded to 50 countries including the US and Canada as of the end of December, 2020.
