Finding the right residential partners across borders

At a glance

In cross-border residential sales, distribution success depends heavily on who represents the inventory. Large global agencies offer scale — but they're not always the best partners for new-build developments.

JLL's Residential Agency team needed to find small to mid-sized brokerages with strong new-build focus and genuine international reach. Not the biggest names. The best-fit partners.

Jeeva built two targeted lists — France-based brokers selling in Portugal, and US-based brokers selling globally — each scored on relevance, not reputation.

"The strongest international sales networks are built on alignment, not logos."

—Claire Dubois, Head of Residential Partnerships, JLL

The challenge: partner discovery without brand bias

When you search for residential brokers, the same names always surface: Sotheby's, Christie's, Savills. They're excellent — but they're not always the right fit for new-build distribution.

"New-build sales are different," explains Claire. "You need brokers who understand pre-construction. Who have deep developer relationships. Who can sell units off-plan to international buyers."

"The big agencies have global reach, but they're not always hungry for new-build inventory. We needed partners who would prioritize our developments — not treat them as one of a hundred listings."

Claire Dubois, Head of Residential Partnerships

The team wanted to find brokers who matched three criteria:

"We couldn't just Google 'France real estate agencies,'" says Antoine Martin, who leads partner development for the EMEA region. "We needed a systematic way to identify, qualify, and rank."

Two lists, two markets

The team designed two parallel discovery projects:

List 1: France → Portugal. Find small to medium brokerages based in France that actively sell new-build residential properties in Portugal. Score each on a 1-100 relevance scale. Exclude large agencies.

List 2: US → Global. Find small to medium brokerages based in the United States that sell new-build properties internationally. Score on the same 1-100 scale. Create detailed profiles for the top 5.

"We didn't want a list of 500 brokers. We wanted 20-30 highly qualified partners we could start conversations with immediately."

Antoine Martin, Partner Development Lead, EMEA

How Jeeva approached it

For each market, Jeeva followed a consistent enrichment and scoring methodology:

Step 1: Discovery. Identify brokerages matching size and geographic criteria.

Step 2: New-build qualification. Verify each brokerage has active new-build inventory or a stated focus on pre-construction sales. Filter out pure resale operators.

Step 3: Cross-border verification. Confirm actual international sales activity — not just "we work with international clients" marketing language.

Step 4: Exclusion. Remove large global agencies (Sotheby's, CBRE, Savills, Christie's, etc.)

Step 5: Relevance scoring. Score each brokerage 1-100 based on:

• New-build focus (weighted highest)
• Cross-border activity evidence
• Size alignment
• Geographic coverage
• Partner fit indicators

Step 6: Profile creation. For the top candidates, build detailed company profiles including: leadership, recent transactions, developer relationships, and market positioning.

The turning point

Claire remembers reviewing the France → Portugal list for the first time.

"There were names I'd never heard of. Small agencies with 10-20 agents. But when I looked at their scores and profiles, I understood why they ranked so high."

"One agency had placed 40 French buyers into Portuguese new-builds in the past year. Forty. They weren't famous — they were focused. That's exactly what we needed."

—Claire Dubois, Head of Residential Partnerships

The scoring framework surfaced partners the team would never have found through reputation-based searching.

"We reached out to the top 10 from the France list," says Antoine. "Eight responded within 48 hours. They were excited to hear from JLL. These are agencies that don't usually get calls from global firms."

The outcome

JLL Residential Agency now has two partner-ready shortlists — qualified, scored, and profiled.

"We've already signed two partnership agreements from the France list," Claire reports. "Both are agencies we'd never heard of six months ago."

The partnerships are structured around new-build exclusives — exactly the kind of focused distribution JLL was looking for.

"These partners aren't trying to be everything to everyone. They're specialists. And specialists sell new-builds better than generalists."

Antoine Martin, Partner Development Lead

What's next

The team is expanding the model to two additional corridors: UK → Spain and Germany → Greece.

"Same approach," says Claire. "Discovery, qualification, scoring. We've got a repeatable playbook now for partner identification in any cross-border market."

Antoine is also exploring whether the scoring methodology could be applied to developer relationships — identifying which builders are most likely to want JLL distribution support.

"In international residential distribution, brand size doesn't guarantee performance. New-build specialization matters more than global coverage. Objective scoring reduces risk in partner selection."

—Claire Dubois, Head of Residential Partnerships