Luton Properties celebrates two decades of business

On this exact day in 1999, Canberra’s real estate scene welcomed what would become one of its biggest players.

Today marks 20 years of Luton Properties, the popular real estate agency lead by the charismatic Richard Luton.

Then, it was called Richard Luton Properties, and the new agency’s flagship office was in Manuka. Luton had previously worked for six years at Peter Blackshaw.

Luton, who is 60 this year, was motivated to establish the agency for his family, with fears for his three daughters’ futures during the peak of the Howard era’s public service cutbacks.

“The Howard years came and everything got a bit tougher, I had three daughters and we worried about if they would have jobs when they finished schools – so we [Luton and his ex-wife] thought, ‘OK, let’s start our own boutique real estate agency and make sure they have jobs’,” he said.  

“Boutique” is no longer a fitting description as Luton Properties now has nine offices with almost 150 staff working across the agencies.

Luton opened the company’s second agency in Dickson the following year on the first day of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Tuggeranong followed a year later and from there it continued to grow.

In 2009, the company dropped “Richard” from the name to be “more corporate”, and it is now Luton Properties.

There are no plans to slow down. Luton said in the next 10 years he plans to open a lot more offices and expand to regional NSW – and he still plans to be involved in the business, even at 70. 

Aniko Carey, of the Luton Dickson office, is the longest-serving employee of the agency. She had worked with Luton previously at Ansett, the airline which has now closed.

“When I joined, there were only two offices, Manuka and Dickson. Over the years, I’ve watched the company grow,” she said.

“We have always worked as a team and I admire Richard for his ‘hands-on’ management style, staff interaction and fostering work-life balance.”

Luton still acts as a listing agent and auctioneer and works closely with his daughter, Sophie.

In his years of work, it was a recent sale that stood out as being one of the most memorable. Last month, the pair sold 18 Dugan Street in Deakin, which sold within a week of being listed despite being scheduled for auction.

“We told the owners around the vicinity of the $1.7 million mark, and we sold it prior to auction with two people chasing it,” he said.

“The last bid for the people to secure the home prior to auction jumped $99,000 and it ended up selling for $2.111 million.”

With Josephine Huynh