Our Inspiring Story - Wills Property

The Wills Family came to Australia in 1912 just prior to World War 1 with the first son George Martin having been born in the UK. After having run various businesses in both country NSW & in Sydney, during which time two more very patriotically named sons, Sydney Austral Wills (Aus) &Melbourne Roy Wills (Roy),were born ,the family finally settled in Bronte.

In 1934 Aus purchased their first Real Estate business located at 59 Macpherson Street, Waverley from Sam Lawrence in the building then known as Lawrences Corner. (The business continued to operate from that location until 2018 under the name of Wills Bros Estate Agents.) A second Real Estate business was purchased shortly thereafter in the late 1930’s from Tom Maher when both George & Roy entered the business. Tom’s daughter, Mary, continued working in the business for over 50 years. This business was located at 315 Clovelly Road, Clovelly. It was closed in 1970 when it was merged into the Macpherson Street business.

As the business grew over the years the next generation became involved in its operation. The first was David Martin Wills AASA(Associate Australian Society of Accountants)) in the early 1960’s, Richard John Wills CPA (Certified Practising Accountant) in 1966, Peter Carl Wills -Valuer (Certificate of Valuation) & Douglas George Wills (Bachelor of Architecture) in the late 1960’s & early 1970’s. Shortly after Richard commenced work in 1966, a third office was purchased from Lance Davis at 471 Bronte Road, Bronte. Richard was appointed as Licensee of that office. It was closed in about 1980 when it too was merged into the Macpherson Street business.

Because Roy, who besides being a very good salesman had always wanted to be a builder, a family decision was made in the 1960’s to also branch out into the then new field of building Strata Title home units. Over the following 30 years the family, operating under the name of Bronte Constructions, built some 25-30 blocks of home units & town-houses mainly in the Eastern Suburbs area.  Roy’s second son Stephen also obtained his Builder’s qualifications & played a vital role in its ongoing operation. Those 30 years were very busy & fruitful as the home unit sales generated much collateral business from people wishing to sell their houses and to move into those home units.

The Bronte Beach office was certainly very different. In the late 1960’s Bronte beachfront was like a small village. Richard used to collect rent from nearly all the beachfront shops and often felt like the local magistrate, especially when he was dragged into local disputes.

When Richard entered Real Estate in 1966 there were no computers such that all accounting work was done manually. Receipts were handwritten in duplicate of triplicate; there was a manual office record of rents received. The Cash Book & Ledger were also manually entered. Lease and other documents & letters were typed up on a typewriter.

In the early 1980’s Peter resolved to leave the business & take up a Real Estate teaching career through the TAFE (Technical & Further Education) system. He subsequently obtained two university degrees through the University of Technology Sydney;  Diploma of Teaching with distinction 1985 & in 1993 Master of Applied Science Building (UTS).He first became a lecturer in valuation practice & real estate at TAFE then  in Land Economics at both the University of Technology Ultimo & finally at Western Sydney  University as Senior lecturer property, School of Economics & Finance, until his retirement in 2008.

In 2017 he sold the business to his son John Athol Wills who is a qualified Real Estate Valuer & has university degrees as a Bachelor of Land Economics & a Masters Degree in Green Building. John has renamed the business “Wills Property” and expanded the business even further. He has since employed Richard Wills’ niece Jillian Wills who comes with over 20 years’ experience in Real Estate as well as two additional staff members in the fields of property management and accounting & another part-time in property management. John’s son Daniel, joined the business in 2017 providing expertise in social media and online marketing. Thus the Wills family involvement in Real Estate carries on to the fourth generation.