‘Real estate saved my life’: A trailblazing female investor's journey in the ’60s
In her 20s, Judy King became one of Australia’s first female real estate agents and investors, crediting the industry for her financial freedom, and ultimately “saving her life”. She shares her story for International Women’s Day.
When she was in her 20s, Judy had experienced more than her share of trauma with an abusive father, violent partners and having to put her daughter for adoption, yet she never gave up.
Now in her 80s, after a full life with ups and downs, she remembers how being a real estate agent and a property investor “saved her life” multiple times, giving her financial freedom and a passion.
Back in the 1960s, the young woman who had fled her home as a teenager to give birth in an unwed mother’s home found herself with few work options, yet rather than lamenting herself, she took every opportunity to build wealth and freedom.
That’s how her career as a realtor began; purely by being at the right place and time.
“At that time I rented a house in Woollahra and I did various jobs including being a registration clerk and doing all the outside legal work for solicitors,” Judy said.
Through her registration clerk position, Judy started networking and became friends with an architect who planned to redesign a land before selling it to a developer.
One night, she accompanied her friend for a work dinner, during which she met various developers and real estate agents, including Bill Bridges, who had set his office at the end of Queen Street in Woollahra.
“Bridges was very well known at the time. He was Sydney’s answer to Reckman in London.”
“He was a cocky little guy with a loud voice that you could hear from the whole length of Queen Street, and I didn’t want to work for this guy,” she said.
“My architect friend nudged me and said, ‘It’s a great opportunity.’”
At the time, Bridges employed only women in his agency – the only women in the Sydney real estate industry.
While Paddington is now considered a top-tier area, in the 1960s, the neighbourhood was “run down” and buzzing with artists and lower working classes.
Back in the ’60s, the median Australian house cost was around $12,700, while the current median house price in Paddington is around $3,350,000.
Following that encounter, Judy started her real estate journey, without a computer, the internet, or a mobile phone, she simply strolled the streets of Paddington, doorknocking and generating some leads to sell houses.
“I can still remember the area. My memories of that time are so strong that I still lie in bed and walk around it in my head.
“The way I knew my way around those streets was almost like a dog mapping it.”
The drive to succeed
Driven by the desperate determination to never face hunger or poverty again, she worked relentlessly, often keeping the office open on weekends.
“Having known such poverty and hunger, I was determined to make a living,” Judy said.
In the Queen Street office, Sydney’s only women in real estate worked tirelessly, like busy bees, in a male-dominated industry.
While Judy said she was aware of the societal difference between genders, having experienced it firsthand with her grandmother, who favoured the family’s sons and allowed them to work in the business while excluding the daughters, she never let it interfere with her goals.
“I never thought that I was a woman in a man’s world because I didn’t think of things like that – I just charged forward,” she said.
“I think that my lack of awareness of the gender gap working in the 60’s was because, given the childhood abuse I suffered, I was driven to achieve without noticing what happened around me.”
While being a woman never stopped Judy, she remained on her guard around the men in the industry.
She recalled an event in Kings Cross where she had to meet investors around a swimming pool and all the women wore bikinis and lounged in the sun while she had to prove herself as a realtor.
“I just had myself completely apart from the dolly birds, and earned my place by being aware that so many of these guys just came on to women.
“I had to find ways of managing them and keep my distance without protesting.”
Judy said while being a woman could be tricky at times, especially with some realtors and investors with wandering hands, she believes it sets her apart from the rest of Sydney’s realtors.
“I think it was an advantage because people found me to be such a curiosity. I was young, attractive, spirited, and always looking for solutions.”
After working for a while and successfully selling houses, Judy soon realised that the riches lay elsewhere – behind the scenes in the back office.
At that time, another woman was working at the back of the Queen Street office, sending letters to various house owners in Paddington and asking them if they wanted to sell.
Bridges and his partners then bought these properties as the owners were eager to sell due to the low rent paid by tenants, the lack of income, and the high cost of maintaining the houses.
Once Bridges bought the houses, he would upgrade them and sell them back.
“So I thought, well, this is where – this is my next step,” she said.
Seeing an opportunity, Judy took a risk and asked her boss if he would fund the purchase of a house where he could make 100 per cent profit.
Bridges was sceptical, saying it would never happen, but Judy persisted and found a property on Sutherland Street.
“I told him I found a house and he put up the money, but we used my solicitor because I didn’t trust him entirely and I got with £1,000, which was a lot at the time.”
“This started my investment journey. I wanted to do the same as him: buy, upgrade and sell.”
Starting a business
Following her first profit as an investor, Judy invested in her career by doing a real estate course before opening her own office, right up the street from Bridges’ office.
“I became Bill’s competitor,” Judy laughed.
“I had to be really careful because he had a reputation of throwing people out the door if they crossed him, but I just knew how to manage him.”
Judy remembers using her “feminine touch” to advertise her business, by creating Elizabethan-style scrolls with information about her agency, which she distributed around Paddington and Double Bay.
As her business grew, she became successful despite struggling with basic math, often using her fingers to add figures, pushing her to hire a former bank manager as an accountant.
Later she bought and renovated an old butcher’s shop at the corner of Jersey Road and Hargrave Street, transforming it into her new office with a beautiful design featuring sandstock brick, cedar wood, and stained glass.
Additionally, she owned about 14 terrace houses that she was renting.
Through her property dealings, she also connected with artists pioneering the area, turning Paddington’s terrace houses into vibrant spaces for both living and creating art, which later became another of her passions.
Yet, despite her success, in 1968, Judy sold her business, including the terrace houses.
“My motivation was to impress my father, and when he died in 1968, I hadn’t managed to impress him.
“With his death there was no way I was ever going to do it because he was no longer with us.”
At the same time as her father’s passing, Judy met her future husband by helping him and his mother sell their property.
The pair then travelled the world together, including Bali, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, the US, Japan, Hawaii and Europe.
They then settled in the UK for a few years before returning to Australia, where Judy resumed her property investor role.
“When we came back to Australia, I bought a row of houses with my husband, at that time I had become very much subservient to him because he was an architect,” she said.
Unfortunately, Judy's relationship with her husband was unhealthy and filled with betrayal, which pushed the young woman emotionally.
“He had an affair when we had a small baby; that was very hard for me emotionally. My life was in crisis.”
A fresh start
To restart their relationship afresh, her husband decided to move away to Spain with the plan for Judy to join him in Mallorca a couple of months after she had sold the investment properties they bought together.
“But I never got there because I was so run down and emotionally worn out that en route I stopped in Malaysia and after that I went to live in Sri Lanka for two years where I could get household help for my baby.”
Eventually, Judy made her way to Mallorca, Spain, not to join her ex-husband but to rebuild her life and earn money again.
“I had to bring up my son, and I had to earn the money to do that as I suffered losses after the divorce, big losses,” she said.
She noted that knowing about real estate and property investment was life-saving, as she used her knowledge to generate capital again.
It’s in the small village Deià on the coastline of Mallorca that Judy started once again investing in properties – this time by flipping houses for foreign investors.
“What was surprising is that I encountered no restrictions working as a real estate agent and investor in Sydney, I had freedom to operate independently, but in Spain the macho culture in the ’70s and ’80s was constraining, especially when dealing with local authorities.”
Judy also became a landlord one more time by dividing off the top part of the house and creating a separate entrance from the street.
Now in her 80s, Judy is still an investor and enjoys the fruits of her labour.
She lives off the rental income from the three properties she still owns while dedicating her time to her other passions: writing and making art.
Despite her life being filled with ups and downs, Judy said her time as a real estate agent in Paddington was a cherished memory and heavily influenced her life.
“Real estate saved my life multiple times, it was like God had landed me in a place where I could accumulate security, and have my own place.
“My dream, to have a home of my own. And I did buy.”