The Harcourts Academy is the first real estate company owned training provider to achieve active RTO status in every state of Australia.

Just last week Harcourts achieved RTO status in New South Wales,   allowing the Harcourts Academy to become a nationwide supplier of real estate training.

Irene Green, Head of the Harcourts Academy, said the Academy had been established since 2002, providing top quality, up-to-date real estate education to hundreds of industry professionals on a monthly basis.

“We now offer 17 units of competency, including 30 specialist classroom programmes and 22 online learning programmes,” she said.

“Our online programmes are what are particularly unique to the Harcourts Academy.

“At Harcourts there is a large focus on technology, and the Academy has embraced this focus over the last year,” she said.

“We deliver our online programmes via state of the art systems created by our in-house multimedia team. Our platform includes an interactive online working area, video, live webinars, and online study groups,” she said.

In tandem with these offerings is the Future Leaders Programme, which is about developing the leaders of our future.

“With this programme, we are providing a quality career path and an opportunity to strengthen both personal and professional skills required for management and ownership,” Ms Green said.

“At our recent Harcourts Business Leaders conference, it was great to see more than 30 future leaders in attendance, which is a testament to the programme,” she said.

Going forward this year, the Harcourts Academy will be focusing on creating more training programmes and fostering the leaders of tomorrow through all business development activities.

“2010 has and will continue to be a very significant milestone year for the Harcourts Academy.

“Achieving active RTO status in all states of Australia is a major coup, and one we are very proud of. We are looking forward to further success throughout the year,” Ms Green said.

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“During the last 12 months we have seen the RBA act cautiously, which allowed market growth to gain its momentum before the RBA took further action. This is a very sensible approach in my opinion,” Mr Green said.

“Harcourts has seen a steady market, with figures across the Harcourts Group in February of this year reflecting a twelve per cent increase on February 2009.

“While this percentage increase isn’t large, it’s steady, which indicates a market that is ready for a minor increase like this rise of 25 base points,” he said.

“And interest rates are still very low compared to historical numbers, so I consider a cash rate of four per cent to be extremely favourable,” he said.

“We must bear in mind the Australian economy has performed well during the last two years in comparison with other countries.”

This is evident by Treasurer Wayne Swan’s statement yesterday, providing “further evidence that a self-sustaining private sector recovery is starting to take hold.”

This announcement was off the back of the Australian Bureau of Statistic’s data released just yesterday, highlighting Australia’s growth in 2009 with the economy up 2.7 per cent, which makes us one of the strongest advanced economies in the world.

“2008 and 2009 have people acting far more cautiously than they did before, and many live in fear of a second economic plunge.

“The RBA however acted based on statistical fact, rather than being led by trending emotions.

“In tandem with our economic growth rate, our unemployment rate is still sitting at a low 5.3 per cent and retail sales figures are surprising us each month,” he said.

“In addition, RP Data Rismark just released their latest report, which shows solid growth in the property market across the nation.”

“I believe this minor rise will ensure our economic growth is sustainable, rather than letting it perhaps escape our control once again.”

Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson says the successful realtor with 30-years’ experience has the credentials and contacts to make a big impact in Harcourts’ Central Region, where he is focused on assisting the group’s franchise owners to grow their businesses.

Tony Renwick, Harcourts' Central Region BDM

A Fellow of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, Mr Renwick (pictured right) originally started out as a sales consultant, moved into branch management and then ownership of multi-disciplinary offices in three different real estate groups, including owning and operating the No. 1 Ray White office New Zealand, which he sold in 2006.

“While Harcourts is already the largest real estate group in New Zealand we want to increase our marketshare in every location in which we already operate and in the Central region we have the additional opportunity of expanding our network too, as we have a number of franchise areas available. 

“I’m confident that with someone of Tony’s calibre on board focused solely on achieving that growth Harcourts will go from strength to strength in our Central region.”

Mr Renwick says he is delighted to have joined Harcourts and to be in a position which will enable him to assist a wide range of the group’s franchise owners, from those running small businesses with just a few sales consultants to those with large, multi-office operations.

“Harcourts is a great brand to be a part of and I’m excited to be putting my passion, knowledge and experience to use with the aim of helping members of this innovative, industry-leading group to take their businesses to the next level,” he says.

In 2009, the First Home Buyer’s grant stimulated the property sector throughout the global financial crisis, encouraging many first home buyers to get into the market and take advantage of the increased incentives.

Harcourts New South Wales, CEO, Chris Stephandellis said this first home owner’s rush produced a downside.

“Due to the increased competition in the market place, there was a spike in the market, with many sales exceeding asking prices particularly in the Bathurst area,” he said.

“Now, there is a decreased amount of first home buyers in the market because of the Grant reduction in December, and the looming threat of a fourth interest rate hike when the Reserve Bank board meets again in February,” he said.

Despite this, Harcourts is seeing growth in the market, with sales up 57 per cent in December 2009 compared with 2008.

“We are seeing buyers and in particular investor buyers hop back on the horse, taking advantage of the current low interest rates. Some of this confidence may stem from the decreasing unemployment numbers and that there is generally more confidence in the market,” he said

“This is evident by the fact that banks have loosened their stronghold on lending and their share prices in some cases have almost doubled during the 2009 market rally,” he said.

Added to this, the rental market remains fairly tight. There is still not enough supply to meet demand throughout NSW. This means rent prices will continue to rise, which is great news for investors.

Overall, the property market will make great spectator sport during the year as buyers look to grab a bargain while capitalising on the low interest rates before the next rate rise.

Due to previous rate rises, banks have increased their interest rates by several points over recent months.

Glenn Stevens Governor of Monetary and Policy Decision said since information about the early impact of these increases is still limited. The Board judged it appropriate to hold a steady setting of monetary policy for the time being.

Managing Director of Harcourts International, Mike Green, said to ensure the market is able to withstand further increases in the future, the RBA needed to make the decision they did.

“It would have been premature to count our economy strong enough to endure four rate rises in less than six months.

“This has already been reinforced by the weaker retail sales figures for December, which were released today.”

“The number of people already in “mortgage distress” is high, and growing, so this would have worsened many householders’ situations,” he said.

Economists have said it would have increased the average repayment on a $300,000 mortgage by $50 per month.

While this would have been the case, the real issue would have been adding this extra $50 to the cumulative rise over the last 12 months, equalling nearly $300 a month.

“The real estate market is still only in the recovery stages from the downturn of the past eighteen months.

“Sales nationally in January were lower than expected. Although ahead of last year’s figures it was only a slight increase,” Mr Green said.

“There has been a significant drop in first home buyers after the first home owner’s grant (FHOG) was cut right back last year.

“On the flipside, the low interest rates are encouraging investors back into the market, so we have seen investor numbers lift significantly in the last couple of months,” he said.

“The Australian property market has been experiencing consistent growth over the past six months, and I believe we are going to see a steady year ahead in terms of investment,” he said.

The property industry is an important element to the Australian economy and the RBAs decision was certainly a positive move for ensuring the moderate rate of recovery continues.

SOURCE: http://www.rba.gov.au/media-releases/2010/mr-10-02.html