Mike Pero

Mike Pero is a New Zealand businessman and entrepreneur who founded the country’s largest mortgage broking business in 1991 and later built Mike Pero Real Estate into one of its fastest-growing property brands.

Pero launched Mike Pero Real Estate on Valentine’s Day 2011 in Christchurch, enabled by a change to the Real Estate Agents Act of 2008 that allowed non-licence-holders to set up a real estate business. The following week, the devastating Canterbury earthquake struck the city, destroying the proposed head office. Operations began from Pero’s three-car garage at home and from that starting point, the brand became the fastest-growing real estate network in the country within three years.

At its peak, the Mike Pero Real Estate network comprised 55 franchisees and 120 licensed real estate agents stretching from Invercargill to the Far North. The brand ranked 23rd in the 2014 Deloitte Fast 50 with 327.8 per cent growth and Colmar Brunton surveys consistently found Mike Pero Mortgages to be New Zealand’s most recognised and trusted mortgage adviser brand. Pero won the New Zealand Pacific Business Award for Business of the Year and Business Person of the Year in both 1999 and 2003.

In March 2024, Australian firm Raine & Horne acquired the Mike Pero Real Estate network. The deal saw the franchise rebrand under the Raine & Horne name, while Pero continued to focus on Mike Pero Mortgages, his original financial services business, the company he started more than three decades earlier.

Pero’s profile is noteworthy because he built one of New Zealand’s most recognised personal brands in financial services, grew a real estate network from an earthquake-damaged garage to a nationwide franchise and demonstrated that brand trust and household-level awareness can be a New Zealand founder’s most durable asset.

Sources: Wikipedia · B2B News · NZ Adviser