Douglas Elliman and Knight Frank ended their partnership after more than 15 years, as Elliman announced plans to expand abroad.
Michael Liebowitz, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman, said the firm is launching Elliman International. Elliman will continue to work with Knight Frank on a referral basis.
“We mutually agreed we would both move on in a non-exclusive basis,” Liebowitz said. “We want our name to be around the world.”
The residential brokerage and the London-headquartered property agency marked 15 years in partnership in September. At the time, the firms counted more than 20,000 agents in 60 countries across six continents, according to a press release.
Elliman also promoted Knight Frank’s annual wealth report, which analyzes ultra-high-end real estate investments around the world and burgeoning markets. In its latest global report, released last year, it identified Dubai as the “standout growth market” with $10 million-plus sales increasing dramatically since before the pandemic.
A spokesperson for Knight Frank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Liebowitz has been planning to expand internationally since he took over as CEO last fall. Last month, he traveled to London to promote the Delmore Surfside Residences, a luxury condo building that Dubai developer Damac Properties plans to build on the site of the deadly 2021 condo collapse. (Damac purchased the property via a court-ordered sale.)
Liebowitz said Elliman could acquire other brokerage firms abroad and open small satellite offices. He stressed that Elliman still plans to be “an asset-light company.”
“When Howard [Lorber] did that deal 15 years ago, the world was much different. Today, the barriers are down. The world is interconnected,” Liebowitz said.
Liebowitz took the helm after longtime chairman and CEO Lorber’s sudden retirement in October. The executive, who has served on Elliman’s board since its 2021 spinoff from Vector Group, said upon his elevation to the role he was focused on Elliman’s new era of “growth and diversification.”
Elliman will focus on high-end destination markets in Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia Pacific, according to a release.
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