The real estate firm Engel & Völkers recently put down stakes in the Richmond, Virginia, market, which is seeing substantial growth in single-family homes, townhouses and condos.
Since 2008, the company, which has roots in Hamburg, Germany, has been growing its presence in the United States and now has more than 5,700 agents in about 250 offices. Chris Herron, Engel & Völkers' Richmond managing broker, said in an interview that the region’s continued growth made it a prime candidate for the business.
“Richmond is growing, with a lot of people moving into the region and a lot of exciting things happening, both from a housing standpoint and in the downtown,” he said.
The city itself has about 230,000 residents, up from 227,000 in 2020, according to Homes.com data and the U.S. Census Bureau. The larger metropolitan area has more than 1.3 million people, according to Greater Richmond Partnership, a business advocacy group, and is expected to add more than 100,000 residents by 2030.
The office in the city’s fashionable Carytown neighborhood will focus on existing homes for sale in expanding suburbs west of the state capital, Herron said, including parts of Goochland, Henrico and Chesterfield counties. Those areas are seeing significant new single-family, townhouse and condo development. Herron highlighted recent interest among developers in so-called 2-over-2’s, in which one two-story condo is stacked above another. The Home Building Association of Richmond reported that of new homes sold in the last quarter of 2024, 48% were either condos or townhouses.
“From an affordability standpoint, there’s obviously a lot of growth there, because you can do medium to higher density at a lower price point, and where prices have gone, affordability is very much an issue,” Herron said.
The median sales price for single-family homes in Richmond was about $406,000 in April, according to Homes.com, an increase of 7% from a year earlier.
Engel & Völkers' marketing characterizes the company as “luxury,” and Herron said the price points its agents sell at do skew higher. But the word doesn’t refer only to an emphasis on high-dollar properties. It’s also about how agents work with clients, he said.
“It’s the level of care we’re able to put into every transaction, whether it’s a $3 million or a $300,000 property,” he said. “The other component is that luxury for everyone is a little different; it could be having a nice outdoor space where someone can have their coffee, while for another client it might be having an Olympic-sized swimming pool in their backyard.”
Herron moved to Engel & Völkers from a Keller Williams office in Richmond’s western suburbs along with three colleagues, Tina Morris, Lindsay Miller and Jessica Cox. Andrew Broocker joined the team from Shaheen, Ruth, Martin & Fonville, another local real estate firm. Herron noted that Broocker has a specialized knowledge of selling homes in golf course communities.
While Herron and his team won’t move into their new office in July, they are already immersed in a housing market that is slowly moving more in buyers’ favor, as price increases moderate and more homes come up for sale.
“People are just trying to find houses, the market’s still a little tight,” Herron said. “But we’re seeing a lot less multiple offers, so the market’s definitely shifting.”