SUPPLIED

Alison Aitken, centre, with her team from Harcourts Grenadier (L-R) Pauline Wilson, Celia Vink, Angela Pye and Glen Ford

A Harcourts real estate salesperson who has turned over $1 billion in sales over her career has probably earnt more than $15m in the process.

Christchurch's Harcourts Grenadier said sales consultant Alison Aitken had been in the industry 28 years and had dominated the ranks of top performers through her career.

Aitken has been number one in the Christchurch city office 21 times, the top Harcourts sales consultant worldwide twice and in the top 10 nine times.

Economist Gareth Kiernan, of Infometrics, said, based on the median Christchurch house price since 1991, Aitken would have had to have signed off 12 sales a month throughout her three decades in the job, to reach $1b in sales.

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Harcourts Grenadier chief executive officer Rob McCormack said: "Alison has been a huge asset to Harcourts Grenadier and her loyalty, passion and enthusiasm is unlimited. Alison is a delight to work with and to be a friend of."

Harcourts allows each franchise to set its own commission rate, so it is not clear exactly what Aitken has earnt from her sales.

Kiernan ran calculations using the city's median price and using standard real estate agency commission models, adjusted over time.

He said it was plausible that she had earned $35m in commission, in total, over her career. That would then be split between her and the franchise. 

"After adjusting for CPI inflation, that equates to about $1.5m per year since 1991. Obviously the Harcourts office and the national body get to keep some of that, but even if the agent gets quarter of it, it's still an average of almost $400,000 per year."

He said, given her profile, she might tend to concentrate on higher-value properties.

That would mean that her average commission percentage could be a bit lower, because agencies often charge a higher rate on the first part of a sale price, trailing off as the amount increases.

"However, even at the extreme case of 2 per cent commission on every sale, you're still talking $20m or an average in real terms of $855,000 per year. Even if she keeps just a quarter of that, it's over $200,000 income per year."

A source said a reasonable expectation would be commission of 2.7 per cent, with a split of 57 per cent to the salesperson and 43 per cent to the franchise, which would result in $15.4m in commission over Aitken's career.

 - Stuff