Sydney’s top 50 real estate young guns: the top agents aged 35 and under

From fast cars and celebrity mansions to ratcheting up more than $7 billion in sales, Sydney’s biggest property deal-makers aged 35 and under have been revealed.

Gavin Rubinstein, Helen Wilson, Kayla Walsh and Josh Tesolin were among the top real estate agents under 35.

They’re the young, fast-car driving agents raking in some serious amounts of cash.

Meet Sydney’s top agents aged 35 and under: the ambitious deal makers who have pushed through a combined $7 billion worth of sales during the rollercoaster property market of the past year.

Real estate transaction figures provided exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph can reveal some of the top young players in the industry made more than $5 million in annual gross commission in 2021.

Agent Gavin Rubinstein, the head of eastern suburbs property group TRG and the star of Prime Video show Luxe Listings, was the top performer, based on sales figures submitted by major agencies.

The 33-year-old, who was reported to have “flunked school” and once run nightclubs in London, was behind $530 million in real estate transactions – mostly from sales of waterfront mansions in the east.

The sales, often with eight digit price tags, were the culmination of a relentless entrepreneurial streak, savvy Instagram posts and natural showmanship, which has been thrust into the spotlight after Mr Rubinstein’s star on Luxe Listings.

Joining him among the younger players with big numbers were Western Sydney agents who had an incredible volume of sales.

This included 27-year-old Josh Tesolin who sold nearly a house a day in 2021.

His 350 deals for the year amounted to about $360 million in transactions, but the Ray White Quakers Hill principal said his earnings had created a unique “problem”.

Quakers Hill real estate agent Josh Tesolin.

Gavin Rubinstein’s team at TRG.

His commission was over $7 million for the year, but he didn’t know what to spend it on.

“It’s the $7 million question,” he said. “I’ve just been buying a few properties, putting it back it my business. I don’t actually have a huge amount of time to (spend money). I work seven days a week.

“It’s easy for people to see the numbers, but you have to work for it. It takes a huge amount of energy to do what I do.”

Leanne Pilkington, the CEO of Laing and Simmons and deputy president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, said so many young agents pulled in huge numbers due to the “biggest boom we’ve ever seen” last year.

She added that many young agents were quickly building profiles for themselves in ways that would have been impossible only a few years ago.

Eastern suburbs real estate agent Warren Ginsberg sold more than $340m in real estate last year. Picture: Instagram

“You can fast track your knowledge more than you could have just 10 years ago,” she said.

“Young agents are also a lot more savvy on social media. It means they can sometimes grow quickly without decades of experience and connections.”

Plenty of the agents pulling off big deals at a young age admitted the job was not as glamorous as it seemed to outsiders.

McGrath St George agent Trent Tarbey, 27, said launching a successful career in real estate meant learning to deal with a lot of rejection.

“I started when I was 18, straight out of school,” he said. “From the outside, it’s a glitz and glam lifestyle. Very Instagram. Coffees and sitting around. The reality is it’s gruelling work.”

The agent, who sold $124 million worth of property last year, said the biggest challenge when he was starting out as an 18-year-old was “getting runs on the board”.

“You don’t have results and incomes, so if you want success you have to put in a lot of hours. Work life balance can be challenging.”

Ray White Nepean Group agent Jasmyn Calgaro, 26, has become one of Western Sydney’s top agents.

McGrath St George young gun Trent Tarbey said it was difficult when he started out fresh out of High School.

Ray White Nepean agent Jasmyn Calgaro, 26, sold $112 million worth of housing in Western Sydney, and said she had to learn to have a “thick skin” to get ahead.

“When I first started, I got a lot of comments about being young and inexperienced. There was a lot of rejection because you’re competing against other agents with much more experience,” she said.

“The job is not what you’d think. Before I had started, I had heard it was good money, but the first three years was getting told to bugger off a lot. It was door knocking, cold calling. It wasn’t pretty.

“It took me seven years to get where I am. It didn’t happen overnight. I was successful because I was persistent.”

Ms Pilkington said the coming year would separate the truly talented from the lucky.

Inner west real estate agent Dib Chidiac sold more than $400m in real estate, including a small red brick house for more than $8m.

Sotheby’s Sydney agent Ben Cohen did more than $95m in sales across the upper north shore.

Century21 Wolli Creek agent George Karasalidis, 29, sold $57m worth of real estate for the year.

“There are certainly a lot of talented young agents out there, but we shouldn’t be singing too high praises for them just yet. A lot of properties were transacting, but now the market is changing,” she said.

“It is a much harder industry than most people realise. They look at expensive cars and expensive suits and think, it must be easy. You’re actually dealing with people at a very stressful time in their lives, selling their biggest asset. You have to deal with all those emotions. It can be all consuming.”