Established and successful Royal-Oak-based real estate company RPA Ltd has joined Harcourts, New Zealand’s largest real estate group, yesterday making the move official by rebranding their office.

Formerly operating independently as Ryan Property Agents and Ryan Commercial, the company is now in the process of introducing the Harcourts brand and its comprehensive range of world-class business, marketing and technology systems and products to its commercial, business broking and residential team.

Co-owners Jackie Ryan, Matt Ryan and Liz Wyllie say they are delighted that they and their growing team have become part of the Harcourts group.

“Harcourts is a New Zealand-owned company, it has the largest national real estate network and a growing global presence, and of all the major franchise groups we believe their brand best portrays the honest, hardworking  image we ourselves have strived to achieve,” Mr Ryan says.  “In addition Harcourts has industry-leading technology, top-quality training and marketing products and an abundance of other excellent resources and support available – all advantages that will be of huge benefit to our team and our clients.”

Business owners, from left, Liz Wyllie, Matt Ryan and Jackie Ryan.

As Mr Ryan explains, the new Harcourts Royal Oak office boasts an experienced and growing team that is involved in commercial and industrial sales and leasing, business sales and commercial property management along with residential sales, leasing and property management.

“Operating for more than 17 years, the company originally started out in residential property sales but then moved in to the commercial property sector, which is an area we have been both heavily focused on and successful in over recent years,” he says.   “Now, in addition to wanting to continue to grow our commercial property and business broking marketshare, we also plan to reassert ourselves in the residential property market, especially in the area of auction marketing in which we have been an award-winning office.”

Mr Ryan says the Harcourts brand and the group’s supporting systems and resources will be particularly beneficial to their company in the residential arena. “In fact, joining Harcourts has already aided us in recruiting two top performing residential sales consultants in our area.”

Mr Ryan says the company has ambitious plans and is keen to build both its residential and commercial teams in order to help them achieve their goals.

Meanwhile Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson says he is thrilled to welcome Jackie, Matt, Liz and their team to the Harcourts group.

“It’s a great endorsement of Harcourts that they chose to join us and become Harcourts franchise owners and exciting to have such a successful company with a strong team of sales consultants, business brokers and property managers in our group now.

“We look forward to working with them to grow Harcourts’ presence and market share in their area of Auckland.”

Located at 758 Manukau Rd, opposite Royal Oak Mall, the new Harcourts Royal Oak office is one of the largest in the area and offers in-house auction rooms and ample car parking.

In addition to serving the Auckland and central-suburbs commercially, the residential sales and property management team works across Royal Oak, Onehunga, One Tree Hill, Greenlane, Hillsborough and Mangere Bridge.   

Mr Green said that over the course of the year most activity has been from first home buyers taking advantage of the First Home Owners boost (in Australia), as well as low interest rates and the best housing affordability in several years.

“The First Home Owners boost has begun to decrease and interest rates climb a little as the New Zealand and Australian economies  improve, and as a result of increased confidence across both Australia and New Zealand, we are seeing investors slowly returning to the market  with all price brackets  becoming active,” he said.

“The lower price brackets throughout Australia and New Zealand are now receiving enquiry from investors, which is good news for our rental market, as more opportunities should be provided for renters who are finding it difficult to find homes to rent due to our current low vacancy rate.”

According to Mr Green, recent Australian statistics indicated an upturn in investment loans from a national average of 27.1 per cent in August to 29.8 per cent in September.

“Property investment in New South Wales was head and shoulders above the rest of the country in September, with a massive 33.4 per cent of all new loans arranged for investors. Queensland’s investor loans were sitting comfortable at 29.6%, above Western Australia at 28.0%, and both Victoria and South Australia at 27. 9% and 26.9% respectively,” he said.
Mr Green said that the return of investors to the market was as a direct result of media and expert commentary over the last few months, pointing toward the first step in the recovery of the economy, and has caused a lift in confidence among investors.

According to Mr Green, both Australia and New Zealand are especially well placed to benefit from the improving economy.

“Rapidly growing infrastructure on both sides of the Tasman, together with other benefits such as comparatively strong economies and tourism industries, have attracted many overseas companies to expand their operations into Australia and New Zealand, creating employment and retail growth opportunities across the board,” he said.

Harcourts is New Zealand’s largest and Australia’s fastest growing real estate group.  Founded in New Zealand in 1888, the operation expanded into Australia in 1997. Currently there are over 600 offices in Australia, New Zealand, China, South Africa, Singapore, Zambia, Indonesia and Fiji.

Harcourts has four key factors which have contributed greatly to its ongoing success – the strength of the Harcourts brand, superior business and information systems, proven marketing tools and strategies plus incredibly talented, skilled and committed people.

Harcourts is also the exclusive South Pacific member of Leading Real Estate companies of the world™. Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® is a global network of over 600 premier real estate firms with 5,000 offices and 150,000 sales associates in 35 countries around the world.

The new website was built using the very latest Web 2.0 tools, with large clear photos and easy-to-navigate functionality.

“The website displays open home and auction times, and also has social media options available, so visitors to the site can share their favourite property with their friends on Facebook, Digg, MySpace, Live, Reddit, Bebo, Delicious, LinkedIn, Blogger, Buzz Up! and more,” Mr Wills said.

According to Mr Wills, Harcourts’ new website (www.harcourts.com.au) also features a Community Page, with a newsroom, blog posts, and feeds to Harcourts’ YouTube Channel among other things.

“We’ve built an Office/People page that allows you to find any of our team across Australia. Google Maps make this experience easy,” Mr Wills said.

“Google Maps has definitely proven to be a successful addition to our online offering and in time we expect Google Base will be an increasingly popular tool too, particularly when it’s further integrated into the main Google search engine.”

For decades Harcourts has prided itself as an industry ground-breaker in real estate technology.

“We see our investment in real estate technology as imperative to provide the public and our team with the best tools possible to ensure their real estate experience is productive and successful.”

Harcourts is Australasia’s fastest growing real estate organisation, with offices in all states and the Northern Territory, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia and Singapore. Last year, it expanded its operations into Zambia, China, and South Africa., with a total of over 600 offices internationally. For decades Harcourts has prided itself as an industry ground-breaker in real estate technology.

Harcourts Holmwood’s General Manager Tony Jenkins says the exciting move follows a strategic decision to increase Holmwood’s focus on commercial, industrial, retail and hospitality real estate following the multi-office Christchurch-based franchise’s outstanding success in the residential and lifestyle property market.

“Holmwood has been active in the commercial property market since 2005 however recently we decided to step things up by establishing a separate division with its own branch office and expanding our team of skilled specialists, while still focusing on providing a ‘boutique approach’,” he says.

As Branch Manager Rosa Carter-Holt explains, the Harcourts Holmwood Commercial team offers a wide range of expertise, with a particular focus on development project marketing and tourism and hospitality business brokerage in addition to commercial property sales and leasing.

“Our professional team has sound market knowledge and excellent business experience, which means we can offer our clients everything from project advisory and consultancy services through to sales, leasing and marketing expertise.      

“One of the keys to our success is the very proactive approach we take to finding buyers and sourcing property in order to make sales – many of which are confidential and involve property or businesses not publicly advertised.”

Ms Carter-Holt says Harcourts Holmwood Commercial works on a wide range of projects and has a growing client base including individual investors, international retail chains, residential developers and institutional investment funds.

The Harcourts Holmwood Commercial team has already notched up several notable deals including the Chateau Blanc Suites Hotel which sold for $11 million and more recently the five-star boutique Huntley House hotel which sold for $3.5 million while current projects include the marketing of Waipara based Muddy Water vineyard and a new commercial and retail development located at 343 Moorhouse Avenue, she says.

“Our clients include significant international and local investors who value our ability to get the results they seek.  They understand and appreciate the skills and experience that we offer combined with the capabilities of Harcourts’ international network.”

Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson says it is excellent to see Harcourts’ commercial team growing in New Zealand.

“Harcourts is focused on growing our marketshare in the New Zealand commercial property sector and with the leadership of Tony and Rosa and the skills, experience and connections of their team I’m sure Harcourts Holmwood Commercial will achieve great success.”

For more information visit: www.holmwood.co.nz

Harcourts’ August figures show spring came early to much of the New Zealand real estate market, but it’s too early to talk about another housing boom, according to Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson.

According to the final, audited August figures of New Zealand’s largest real estate group, Harcourts’ sales consultants completed a national average of approximately 47% more written sales last month than in August 2008, with a total of 2030 written sales making it the second highest amount since November 2007, Mr Thomson says.

Commenting in the latest Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter he says the largest increase occurred in the group’s Northern region (which includes Auckland) where the volume of written sales last month was a significant 78% ahead of August 2008 and in addition the average sale price was up 11% on the same month last year.

“In three of Harcourts’ other regions there was also an increase in written sales last month when compared with August 2008, with our South Island Provincial region being the only exception.”

Harcourts’ figures show more properties came onto the market last month than in August 2008 but Mr Thomson says the total volume of property on hand remains limited and in some regions the slow rural market is continuing to impact on average sale prices. 

“While confidence in the market appears to have returned we have to be mindful of the fact that the numbers we are seeing this year are being compared to the historically low numbers of 2008.  If you look further back in time our national sales numbers remain 25% below the peak of August 2005.

“So, while the market is more positive and active and the lower number of listings we have seen over winter has created competition and helped to stabilise prices in many locations it’s too soon to be talking about another ‘housing market boom’,” Mr Thomson says.

“Notwithstanding that, serious buyers are taking action now while asking prices and mortgage interest rates are more attractive and smart sellers are seizing the opportunity to list their property before more stock comes onto the market and balances out the current situation.”

For more information see Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter (attached).
Harcourts NZ Marketwatch September09