Walk Score is a facility mapping platform that simply evaluates the ‘walkability’ of a neighbourhood in the interests of decreasing our dependence on cars (for environmental, health and social reasons).

This is proving to be incredibly useful for customers visiting our websites and we’ve added another tool to the Walk Score maps called “Bird’s Eye View”.  This adds a whole new perspective to how the property can be viewed as you can see from the below image.

Bird's Eye View running on Walk Score

We really hope our customers find this new tool useful.

Walkscore is a facility mapping platform that simply evaluates the ‘walkability’ of a neighbourhood in the interests of decreasing our dependence on cars (for environmental, health and social reasons). This will greatly help with Harcourts Google mapping abilities as well as providing local facility information.

So how does it work? You can get a ‘walkability’ score (out of 100) for an area based on an algorithm that computes the proximity of amenities and therefore how easy it would be for you to live a “car-less” lifestyle with only your feet. Those looking to move to, work near, or holiday in…wherever, can determine which location will suit, with only their two feet to rely on.

We really hope our customers find this new tool useful.

Here is an example of the power of this new tool. http://www.harcourts.co.nz/Property/564802/WL21438/Apt-10i-164-The-Terrace then click the Map Views button.

Users will be able to access Harcourts’ mobile property websites automatically on any smartphone that has a web browser.

Jason Wills, Chief Information Officer for Harcourts International, suggests that this technology is leading edge and the ability for the websites to run on practically any smart mobile phone is exceptional.

“Many systems only cater for the iPhone or the Android but Harcourts’ approach is to not limit their customers to specific devices,” Mr Wills said.

“Let’s open up the website to all smart phones.  This is the future of web-based technology and not only do I want to have access to any site on my mobile phone, I want the site to look great and work well!

“I don’t want to have to download any apps; I just want websites to work simply. This is Harcourts’ approach to technology and you will see this as we develop more tablet/iPad websites,” Mr Wills continued.

The new mobile websites have all the basic features of the complete website, including easy to view property photos, maps, auto phone agent, open home details, contact office/agent feature, and access to Harcourts’ 15,000+ properties.

To access the websites, simply go to your phone’s web browser and type in www.harcourts.com.au or www.harcourts.co.nz.

The smartphone websites are the latest edition to Harcourts’ already impressive technology suite which includes next generation websites, the eCampaign application for the iPad, the Mobile Agent application for the iPad and iPhone, and the addition of QR Codes to the group’s marketing materials, amongst others.