The Kosciusko First National (KFN) real estate business in Jindabyne has changed hands with McGrath Snowy Mountains purchasing the business in July.
Consisting of both real estate and holiday lettings through their Jindabyne Accommodation Centre arm of the business, principal owner Gordon Jenkinson has owned the business since 2007.
Gordon said he had been approached numerous times to split the businesses with people especially interested in the holiday rentals, but he is pleased he has sold to Shannon Ferguson from McGrath Snowy Mountains.
“I was prepared to wait for someone to come along and could purchase the whole business. Shannon was a really good fit, he wanted to keep the whole business, he wanted to keep all my staff on, and I've had some of my staff from the first year,” said Gordon.
Commenting on his future, Gordon said he would be keeping his real estate licence and continue in a part time basis doing sales and special projects contracting to McGrath Snowy Mountains.
“I think there will be plenty of special projects and I estimate that somewhere between 600 to 700 million dollars of public money will be spent in Jindabyne in the next ten years.”
A born and bred local, Gordon went to Berridale primary school and Monaro high school in Cooma and once finishing school in 1973 started working with his father in their local butcher business. They bred cattle, would send it to local abattoirs and then sell the meat through their butcher shop in Berridale. The majority of their product was sold into businesses operating in the NSW snow resorts.
“It was a good business, good little farm, good little operation, but then the abattoirs went from a domestic abattoir to an export only abattoir, so I ended up having to cart stock to Moruya, Goulburn and Tallangatta over the other side of the mountains to get stuff slaughtered. It just wasn't going to last a long time with those sorts of costs. So, we just closed the business down.”
“My brother and I dabbled in real estate. We've built a couple of units and bought blocks of land and we've always had an interest in in those sorts of investments,” was how Gordon described his entry into the real estate business.
When previous KFN owner Brendan Neville contacted him in 2004 Gordon started working in real estate.
“Brendan approached me because I had a fairly good knowledge of all the local areas especially in the rural areas and I've been working here for a long time and had a fair list of contacts. In 2007 Brendan said ‘the orange was squeezed dry’ and he wanted to move on, so I bought the business at that stage.”
Describing the recent market Gordon said Covid really changed things completely for the area with people selling up in Sydney and moving to Jindabyne “buying the million dollar house which turned into two million dollar houses and now there’s half a dozen properties that sold over three million dollars.”
Gordon liked the idea of selling to another local in Shannon Ferguson who has already cemented himself in Cooma and Berridale.
“Shannon is a local bloke, he’s got a real interest in the area from a permanent basis, he’s here for the long haul. The McGrath franchise is a great franchise, it’s very very strong in the demographic areas where we sell to, where most of my clients come from.”
Talking on the purchase, Shannon Fergusson said it was very exciting and acknowledged that Gordon and his business had a long history with the town.
“The opportunity came out of the blue although we've certainly had our eyes on getting into the Jindabyne area, having offices in Cooma and Jindabyne,” said Shannon.
