A fast-expanding ‘premium’ estate agency brokerage in the UK has launched two offices in South Africa.

By Design, which was founded by CEO David Lindley in 2022 two years after he left the helm at Fine & Country, now has a network that includes independent agents in Bristol, Oxfordshire, North Devon, Sutton Coldfield, Bury St Edmunds and North Lincolnshire, with Rutland and Somerset due to launch in the coming months.

But the estate agency is now making a bid for international expansion with two branches, one in Johannesburg and the other on the Garden Route on the southern coast.

Both are being run by Elizabeth McKenzie (pictured), who recently won ‘best estate agent in Africa’ at the most recent International Property Awards, says she has plans to expand the estate agency around South Africa.

By Design claims to differ from other agencies in the premium housing market because it offers a more strategic digital marketing effort to find buyers for clients’ homes and, unlike more corporate agencies, a ‘single point of contact’ for vendors through the sales process.

Dynamic and digital

McKenzie hopes to mirror this approach on her patch. “I’m delighted to be working with Elizabeth and her team’, says Lindley. “We have known each other for some time, and when we discussed the opportunity to bring something different, dynamic, and digitally focussed to the South African property market we couldn’t wait to get started.

“This is an incredibly exciting time for By Design, as our national network becomes truly international.
“It has always been part of our strategy to expand overseas, and to start that chapter of By Design’s story with Elizabeth and her team is the perfect partnership”.

Mckenzie adds: “Through collaborating with David and the By Design team in the UK, we can launch a new approach for the premium market here in South Africa, and better yet deliver a market-beating model for the best agents to be successful with in the luxury sector”.