Peet & Co was founded in 1895 as Peet & Bastow by James Thomas ‘JT’ Peet (1862-1935).
Peet was an English surveyor and draughtsman. He arrived in Australia in 1888, and after a short time in Queensland, moved to Melbourne where he established a real estate agency, Peet & Bastow, in partnership with architect Austin Bastow. By the early 1890’s Peet & Bastow turned their attention to the west, and in 1895 James Peet moved to Western Australia and established Peet & Company Ltd.
The Company had offices in William Street Perth, advertising themselves as Estate and Financial Agents. They offered a variety of services as Valuers, Advisers to clients for Subdivisions, Rental and Mortgage Collection Agents, and Agents for Crown Land. By the first half of the 20th century Peet & Co had become one of the biggest Real Estate companies in Western Australia.
In the late 1990’s Peet & Co decided to expand nationally and bought its first property in Victoria. In 2002, the company continued its eastern expansion buying in Queensland, followed in 2004 by purchases in New South Wales. In August of the same year the company was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. By 2006 the company had changed its name from Peet & Co to Peet Limited.
The group now has operations in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, ACT and the Northern Territory. The headquarters in Perth, Western Australia still focuses on creating master-planned residential communities and medium density and apartment developments for homebuyers across Australia…a dream that I am sure James Peet would have wholeheartedly endeavoured to do, if still alive today.
