WINNING CYCLE – For the 3rd year running, ERA Dupuch Real Estate has walked away with regional honours as top ERA performer in the Caribbean. Pictured, cycling legend Lance Armstrong, left, 2007 keynote speaker, with president and founder of the local firm Peter Dupuch. As thousands of their peers watched, news celebrity Barbara Walters presented awards at this year’s ceremony in Orlando. Founded in 2001, ERA Dupuch has been one of the country’s fastest growing real estate firms and now has offices or agents throughout the Bahamas.

For the third year in a row, ERA Dupuch Real Estate has been named the top-performing ERA agency in the Caribbean, beating competition from Turks and Caicos, Aruba, the Dominican Republic, Cayman Islands and Puerto Rico. This year’s award was highlighted by television personality Barbara Walters at the ERA International Business Conference last month in Orlando. In previous years, Nassau-based representatives honoured by thousands of their peers received their awards from cycling legend Lance Armstrong and motivational speaker Anthony Robbins.

Contributing to ERA Dupuch’s success were BREA-licensed brokers Ken Chaplin and Dave McCorquodale who had the highest sale numbers in the ERA Dupuch office along with Carla Sweeting and Kayla Ralston. Chaplin was, for the fourth year running, the top producer, and McCorquodale sold 12 units at The Reef, Turnberry/Kerzner’s luxury condo hotel, including the $7.5 million penthouse. Ralston also had the $5.5 million penthouse and another $2.5 million unit under contract. “Despite housing woes in the US, the Bahamian real estate market has remained very strong,” says Peter Dupuch, founder of ERA Dupuch Real Estate. “Since this office opened in 2001, every year we’ve sold more homes that the last. 2007 was better than 2006, and so far 2008 is continuing that trend.”  

Thanks to its strong Nassau base, the firm expanded in 2007, opening offices in Spanish Wells, Hope Town, Exuma and Long Island in addition to its existing offices on East Bay Street and in Marsh Harbour, Abaco.                                                                       

“Our expansion in the family islands is a direct result of the consistently strong real estate market in The Bahamas,” says Dupuch. “I feel that the strength of the local market is primarily due to our unique lifestyle, and our proximity to the United States. The Bahamas offers opportunities that nobody else can, and I think our peers in the region recognise that. When we go to these large international conferences and say that we’re from The Bahamas, we’re instantly regarded as being special, and I think that feeling is manifested in our product.”                                           

Founded in 1993, Dupuch Real Estate joined the ERA network in 2001 and is linked with 38,000 brokers worldwide, with offices in the US, Europe and the Caribbean. ERA last year won the award for Highest Overall Satisfaction for Repeat Home Sellers Among National Full Service Real Estate Firms from J.D. Power and Associates, an award that was well deserved, says Dupuch. “We consider ourselves fortunate to be a part of a global real estate leader. We do all that we can to live up to their standards of excellence, and I think our regional award yet again demonstrates our commitment to their ideals.”