James is consistently a top performing agent for the company winning both Bayleys and the Real Estate Institute Sales Person of the Year awards in 1993, 1996, 2004, 2007, and 2008 for excellence in commercial property sales. Year 2009/2010 Bayleys National Wide Commercial Sales No. 2
His sales reflect a mix of auction, tender and private treaty sales drawing from his network of contacts in both Asian and New Zealand business and property sectors local and offshore.
It's a far cry from James' arrival in New Zealand in the mid-1980s as a Chinese University Graduate working as a pharmacist in a chemist in Warkworth.
James was born and raised in Hong Kong where he learned to speak Mandarin, Cantonese and English. Like many young Chinese he went overseas to study and graduated from Melbourne University with a pharmacy degree followed by a business studies degree.
He heard there was a need for pharmacists in New Zealand and came to the country for some work experience before returning home to Hong Kong.
He saw a Bayleys' advertisement seeking Chinese speakers to help with the number of Hong Kong business people and potential migrants seeking to invest in New Zealand commercial property ahead of the Chinese takeover of the former British colony in 1997.
Initially James started as a salaried worker acting as an interpreter and liaison person. However, his role quickly expanded as he became a direct sales negotiator, while a at the other end of the scale he also become a benefactor and "social worker" for struggling Asian families trying to settle here.
Due to "word of mouth" within overseas and local Asian communities, following numerous successful deals over many years, James has built a level of client trust to the extent that investors seek him out personally.
He gives the Bayley family and company credit of "welcoming people of different personalities and cultures" and says people in other walks of life could learn a lot from the "people skills" agents must acquire to be successful.
James is now the director of a multi-lingual Asian sales team at Bayleys servicing investors, predominantly from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea.
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