Ray White lands Alexander Phillips in major eastern suburbs coup

One of Australia’s most productive residential agents is joining Ray White, giving the network an established high-volume sales platform in Sydney’s tightly contested eastern suburbs market.

Ray White has added Alexander Phillips to its Sydney network, completing one of the most closely watched agency moves in the eastern suburbs this year.

Phillips is establishing a Woollahra-based business under the Ray White banner after more than a decade as a partner at PPD Real Estate.

The transition has been months in the making. Plans first emerged publicly in March, when it was reported that Phillips had acquired the former Kids Stuff and Steve Costi’s Fish Market premises in Queen Street, Woollahra, for $7.25 million.

At the time, he was expected to remain with PPD until the end of the financial year before launching the new operation. Further reporting in April identified August as the planned opening period.

For Ray White, this is significantly more than another office opening.

Phillips arrives with an established team, a substantial seller and buyer database and a sales footprint extending across some of Sydney’s most valuable residential markets.

Domain’s rolling 12-month data to 24 August attributes 186 sales to Phillips, including joint-agent transactions. Those sales carried a disclosed value of $776.2 million and an average price of $4.9 million.

Of the 186 recorded transactions, 127 were completed by auction and 59 by private treaty, with properties spending an average of 28 days on the market. Domain notes that its figures are based on properties advertised through the portal and that undisclosed prices are excluded from the total sales value.

His strongest recent markets include Bronte, where Domain records 26 sales, followed by Clovelly, Randwick, Bondi, Woollahra and Waverley. That gives Ray White an immediately productive operation across both the eastern beaches and the prestige suburbs closer to the city.

Phillips’ public profile lists him as the recipient of 11 consecutive Australia-wide No.1 salesperson awards from 2016 through to 2026. It also credits him with more than $5 billion in career sales and says his team regularly completes more than 200 transactions annually. Those broader figures are claims carried on his agent profile rather than independently calculated portal data, but they illustrate the scale of the business Ray White has recruited.

The move also comes at a more demanding point in the eastern suburbs property cycle.

In May, Phillips said prices in the region had fallen by about 10 per cent since January, although his team had still recorded its strongest first quarter.

He attributed that performance to reading market conditions early, adjusting vendor expectations before campaigns commenced and being prepared to advise owners against listing when their price expectations did not reflect the market.

That combination of listing volume, market knowledge and database reach makes the recruitment strategically valuable to Ray White.

The group says it now has more than 12,000 members operating across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Hong Kong. It also reported a record 14.4 per cent share of residential property sales across Australia and New Zealand in 2025.

For Phillips, the commercial logic is the opportunity to combine a highly developed personal brand and local team with the referrals, corporate infrastructure and geographical reach of a major network. For Ray White, the benefit is more immediate: an established eastern suburbs business capable of contributing meaningful market share from its first day of operation.

The departure closes a lengthy chapter at PPD.

Phillips established the business in 2013 with Jason Pantzer and Debbie Donnelley after the three had previously worked together at Goodyer Donnelley. When the proposed split was first reported, Donnelley and Pantzer rejected suggestions of a dispute, describing it as the natural conclusion of a long business partnership and wishing Phillips well in his next venture.

PPD continues under its remaining leadership as a substantial independent eastern suburbs agency. Its public company profile says the business has more than 60 staff across three offices, while its website records 332 sales and 361 leasing transactions during 2026 to date.

The broader significance of the Phillips appointment extends beyond Woollahra.

Franchise competition is increasingly focused not simply on signing offices, but on attracting mature agent-led businesses that already possess their own identity, team structure, database and measurable market share.

Phillips brings those elements with him. Ray White provides the larger platform around them.

For the network, the result is not merely another yellow signboard in Sydney’s east. It is the addition of one of the country’s most productive residential sales operations in a market where experienced agents, established databases and listing density remain difficult to replicate.