Cadre has won the Game Changer of the Year Award at the 2025 REA Excellence Awards, putting the Australian property development and investment group’s people-first pitch in the spotlight. Founder and creative director Christopher Tyas said the recognition felt personal, saying he was honoured by the award and never expected to be acknowledged for something like it in his lifetime, let alone alongside his brothers.
The reason readers are searching Cadre now is simple: the award has turned a long-running business story into a current one. Tyas said the group measures success through a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit, and that approach helped define the company’s place in real estate development at a time when buyers, investors and award judges are all paying closer attention to more than just returns.
Tyas said Cadre began with a house in Sorrento on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, which he and his brother James bought and renovated together before the business expanded. He said the company started with house renovations and gradually grew into a large commercial operation, and that he now runs it with his brothers Nicholas and James. Over time, Cadre was formally rebranded about a decade ago, but Tyas said the core ethos never changed: integrity, doing what they say they are going to do, and creating timeless spaces that stand the test of time.
He said that early period still shapes how the group works today. Tyas recalled that he and James were on the tools, painting and plastering, working with subcontractors and doing much of the work themselves because they did not have the money. That experience, he said, taught them how things go together and gave them huge gratitude for trades. It also helps explain why Cadre frames sustainability more broadly than energy use alone. Tyas said it is not just about solar power, but about mental health, social health and social interaction, alongside the environmental and financial outcomes the company says it uses to judge its projects.
The unanswered question is which project or projects earned Cadre the 2025 REA Excellence Awards recognition. What is clear is that the award has lifted a business built from one renovation into a larger commercial operation into a wider conversation about what real estate development is supposed to deliver, and who it is supposed to serve.
