From harbourfront mansions to inner-city penthouses, chances are you’ve seen a TRG sign board perched outside one of the many affluent homes of Sydney’s East. After dissociation from the Ray White brand, The Rubinstein Group is the manifestation come to life of Gavin’s younger self, who is now not only an agent but a Business Owner and Founder. Like all leaders, his rise to the top didn’t come easy — and that’s why Gavin praises the help of his core team, which includes the brains of the operation, his brother Jarryd, and Associate Directors Oliver Lavers, Cae Thomas and Patrick Cosgrove.
Reaping the rewards of hard work and savvy business decisions, Gavin still maintains a “first one in, last one out” approach. Following years of cold calls, early mornings and late nights, Gavin is now mentoring and moulding his army of next-generation TRG young guns to dominate the Sydney real estate market.
The general assumption of real estate agents is no secret: flashy bullshit artists with a poor work ethic. True for some, but if you walk the walk and sell $50 million worth of property in 19 days, you too can drive a Lamborghini Urus and wear a Patek Phillipe, and why wouldn’t you? Rubinstein likes to present well, which means tailored P.Johnson suits and expensive shades. As Rubinstein says, ‘look good, feel good, do good.’
Gavin, in some facets of life, lives a private life. His relationships and property investments are a well-kept secret. Although, just about anyone who has watched Amazon Prime’s Luxe Listings Sydney, glanced at Gavin’s Instagram or listened to the ‘Thinking Outside the Box with Gavin Rubinstein’ podcast can get a peek inside the life of the man behind Sydney’s biggest sales.
A self-proclaimed ‘glorified telemarketer,’ Gavin has publicly stated that he had to ‘shovel shit’ in the initial stages of his now hyper-successful real estate career. Cold call after cold call and door knock after door knock, it wasn’t pretty. Not taking no for an answer, Gavin’s career blossomed into the new kid on the block making some serious noise in Sydney’s East. Suddenly, there was a little dude with a nice suit kicking the door down and obtaining listings that he was in no position to secure, yet he did.
It was Ray White who gave Gavin the platform to become the agent he is today and the company that helped make the name and reputation that is Gavin Rubinstein. On top of hundreds of millions of dollars of property sold, from 2013–2019 and every year in between, Gavin was Ray White’s number one salesperson in NSW — and in 2018 and 2019, that extended to a global scale. In 2020, Gavin was ranked the number one owner under the Ray White brand internationally.
These days, it is Woollahra and Rose Bay that Gavin calls home, with TRG’s flagship office nestled in the hustle and bustle of Queen Street. Only recently, the second TRG office was secured in a central Rose Bay location, a deal publicly aired on Luxe Listings Sydney.
The core team behind TRG is the fuel that makes the vehicle drive. Gavin often praises the numbers-focused mind of his fitness-inspired brother, Jarryd Rubinstein. Jarryd, who previously held a Guinness World Record for most muscle ups, has not only utilised his business-savvy brain in South Africa and London but also volunteered and was selected for an extremely niche commando unit in the Israel defence force.
Gavin is a self-confessed avid NBA fan and often directly correlates his core team to that of LeBron James’ lack of ability to win a Championship without the help of his teammate Anthony Davis or, previously, Kyrie Irving. Not that we should ever put LeBron’s name and ‘lack of ability’ in the same sentence. While Oliver Lavers, Cae Thomas and Property Manager Jerome Strot have been there for a vast majority of the ride with Gavin, upon the opening of TRG, Rubinstein set his eyes on Patrick Cosgrove to join the already successful team, and often, like Gavin’s negotiations, he was successful.
A fierce negotiator and now a household name, one thing Gavin doesn’t do is switch off. Whether it’s lunch at Mimi’s or a two-week stint in Europe during the summer, the phone stays on, and the lion stays hungry. From the beaches of Bondi and Tamarama to the buzzing streets of Paddington and Double Bay, TRG sign boards are becoming a permanent fixture in Sydney’s East. House by house, TRG are not only taking part, they’re taking over.
Read our conversation piece with TRG Associate Director Oliver Lavers here.
