This month….

Figures continue to show signs of positivity this month especially in the Central region, but a commonality prevails. The real estate industry, although showing positive signs amongst the public and real estate agents, is on the upward curve from one of the biggest lows in fifteen years.  Record interest rate lows and first home buyer and investor activity are helping the surge.  National figures show this by way of the average sale price on the rise by 3.5% and more business being written, up 22% on last year.   Property on hand and exclusive listings will remain low both at -2.2% due to the demand and the lack of stock on hand, but our cousins across the ditch may just encourage positive spending in New Zealand.

Hayden Duncan, Harcourts Group Ltd CEO

Disclaimer:  All Harcourts MarketWatch figures are current to the end of the reported month and are compared to the same month ended for the previous year.  ‘Written Sales’ is defined by all sales brought to contract status, where ‘Settled Sales’ are the results of contracts completed at the close of the reported month.  Written Sales are a snapshot of the markets temperature while Settled Sales show what has happened in the previous month.

The programme is part of a national drive to offer job opportunities to those who have skills in business, wish to change career or are looking for a chance to retrain and ‘earn while they learn.’

Supported by New Zealand’s largest real estate company, Harcourts, select offices nationwide have jumped on the chance to upskill and provide employment for professionals who may have had a career in another industry such as teaching, nursing, in a trade, or maybe even the police force.

Harcourts Group Chief Executive, Hayden Duncan says this is an opportunity to provide careers to skilled professionals and to continue to extend the quality of the real estate industry.

“Lately there have been reports in the media about the lack of employment, and skilled professionals unable to gain employment in their particular field of study or trade. What we are offering is an opportunity for educated people with experience in the workforce, a chance to upskill themselves with full support and training so they have a chance to have a successful career over the rest of their working life.”

“The New Zealand Real Estate Scholarship Programme offers a retainer and many benefits that support it to be a substantial package for recipients. Recent regulations and requirements introduced into the industry have ensured that certain levels of professionalism and accountability are delivered to all sellers and buyers.  We want to share the knowledge and professionalism our brand is associated with, to grow the industry in a way that not only delivers outstanding real estate experiences, but in doing so maintains the ‘Harcourts Way’ as the ‘industry standard’ in terms of real estate services,” says Mr. Duncan.

“Real estate is no longer a job that just anyone can enter into as once thought – it is a profession requiring in depth training and for some it can be a life changing career move,” comments Mr. Duncan.

Recipients of the New Zealand Real Estate Scholarship Programme receive a salary plus commission, their national certificate and license in real estate plus full training, with all course expenses paid for; a substantial investment into personal profile marketing material and the support of the best in the business, topped off with attendance to the largest real estate conference in New Zealand in 2013 – all while they learn.  All this comes from within an industry that traditionally has never paid salaries.

The training completed with Harcourts’ Academy, has the largest in-house training facilities of any real estate company in the country, so candidates are in the best of hands and The New Zealand Real Estate Scholarship Programme is available within all areas of real estate covering residential, rural, commercial and industrial sales.
Available to anyone new to selling real estate i.e. has not been actively selling; The New Zealand Real Estate Scholarship Programme will have one intake this year and run for a period of twelve months. After the first twelve months, successful candidates have the opportunity to further advance their real estate career engaging in more advanced training.

There are over 25 scholarships on offer spanning the country from Greater Auckland to Queenstown and the campaign has now been launched on social media sites Facebook, Twitter, online via seek.co.nz, stuff.co.nz, various print and radio stations across the country.

You can apply for The New Zealand Real Estate Scholarship or to find out more information, at www.opennewdoors.co.nz or by free calling 0508 OPEN DOORS.

On the 21^st April Harcourts Dunedin will auction the neurosurgery fundraiser house on site in the Mitre 10 Mega car park on Anderson Bay Road, Dunedin.

Marketing of the charity house, undertaken by Harcourts Dunedin, has returned great interest over the last few weeks says Harcourts Dunedin Manager Geoff Stevens and sales consultant Jane Bradshaw.

“We have seen good numbers through the open homes averaging 130 people each weekend which is great,” says Jane.

“Over the last four open homes there has been a lot of interest from different parties. This weekend will be the last opportunity to view the charity home from 1130am with the auction scheduled for 1230pm.”

March 3 saw local businesses unite as Mitre 10 Mega, Certified Builders Association of New Zealand and Harcourts Dunedin announced plans to build a three-bedroom home in the Mitre 10 Mega car park with proceeds going to the Chair of Neurosurgery fund.

When Harcourts Dunedin read about the Neurosurgery Unit fund raising drive in the Otago Daily Times they offered to volunteer to help raise the $3 million.

“Mitre 10 Mega and Certified Builders lead a team of tradespeople who have given time and materials, while Harcourts are marketing and providing auctioneer services on the day all for free to help raise funds for the project. It is such a wonderful cause and we are confident this house will sell on Saturday,” said Ms Bradshaw.

Harcourts Dunedin Manager Geoff Stevens says that he expects the house to be popular as have all auctions in Dunedin of late.

“This is such a great cause and one contribution of many great donations and grants given. We do hope this auction will see a great result for the campaign. Harcourts properties have seen multiple offers and increased interest in Auction of late, as good properties are selling well.  We have noticed a tightening of stock numbers and so I do think as we experience buyer demand that the Neurosurgery Charity House will be popular,” said Mr Stevens.

This charity auction is but one event aimed at raising funds for the campaign launched in January 2012 to fund the appointment of a Professor for New Zealand’s first academic neurosurgery unit, based at Otago University. This is an essential role to ensure the ongoing delivery of neurosurgical services to Otago and Southland, and will also add significant value to neurosurgical research in New Zealand.

Otago University Pro Vice-Chancellor, health sciences, Peter Crampton said he is excited by the campaign’s early success. The chair in neurosurgery was a crucial part of future-proofing the service.

“This is testament to the importance of the neurosurgical service to the people of Southland, Otago and the South Island,” Mr Crampton said.

Since The Neurological Foundation’s inception the fundraising has run like this:

21 Jan         $500,000+

15 Feb        $1,380,939

24 Feb        $1,500,000

14 Apr        $2,000,000

And on the 21^st of April the charity house will be auctioned to add to the fund.

Academic units already exist in Canada, USA, the UK, and Australia, and in 2010 an expert panel recommended the unit be established to ensure that New Zealand has a similar academic neurosurgical centre of excellence.

Public donations can be made:

Online at www.chairofneurosurgery.org.nz,

At any National Bank or ANZ branch to the account Neurosurgery Campaign, account number 0602870133301-05.

By mail: Freepost 2064, Neurosurgery Campaign, PO Box 914, Dunedin, 9054.

-Ends-

For further comment contact:

Geoff Stevens, Branch Manager

Harcourts Dunedin

03 477 5334

Jane Bradshaw, Sales Consultant and Academy Trainer

Harcourts Dunedin

03 477 5334

Irene Mosley, Project Manager

Neurological Foundation

Chair of Neurosurgery Campaign

03 477 4837 or 027 277 5631

Laura Wilmot, Communications Manager

Harcourts Group Ltd

09 520 5569

Harcourts first REAA Continuous Education Verifiable training at the Ellerslie Events Centre with 300 people in attendance (copyright Harcourts Group Ltd 2012)

The first group of agents attended the first Harcourts Continuing Education session on Monday at Auckland’s Ellerslie Events Centre.

The Events Centre was a mass with three hundred people as each attended their first 2.5 hours of Verifiable Continuing Education. The Harcourts group was the first of many real estate agents to start their 10 hours of verifiable continuing education required under the new Real Estate Agents Authority (REAA) practice rule.

As of 1 January, 2012 a new regulation was introduced by the REAA for all those holding real estate licenses to attend and complete 20 hours of continuing education each year as a requirement of all licensees to renew their real estate license.

Hayden Duncan, CEO of Harcourts Group, says the industry is tightening up on regulation and the accountabilities of those practicing real estate.

“Real estate agents are placed under intense scrutiny [and can be the target of criticism?] so this requirement will provide a transparency and accountability of practicing agents.  This type of regulation and its requirements will in turn ultimately provide buyers and sellers more piece of mind that agents will do the right thing all the time, when assisting in buying or selling property.”

“The REAA has had an average of 60 concerns raised over the last seven months and no-one in the industry likes to hear of a complaint.  For us [Harcourts] the vehicle of Continuing Education and the act of actually attending training sessions, rather than doing it online, reinforces the message that we are in this business to deliver the best level of service we possibly can.  Through this medium we must continuously improve and develop the skills we need to do that. This is a people business,” says Mr Duncan.

The verifiable continuing education topic for 2012 is Professional Conduct and Client Care Rules, with a focus on misconduct and misrepresentation and as the REAA has approved Harcourts to become an official provider, the Harcourts Academy will deliver the verifiable modules in person over the next 6-12 months around the country.

Harcourts Northern/Central Academy trainer Julie Waymouth said, having never trained such a large group of people in one session, she was delighted with how the morning went.

“The attendees learnt through many channels, listening to the content delivered and interacting with others in the group through talking – face-to-face training is the key.”

“Despite being advised the training was a requirement all licensees must take, the best thing was hearing attendees say they enjoyed the session and felt that it did enhance their skill and understanding.  Many of Harcourts’ top agents came up to myself and John Moyle the other trainer, and congratulated us on a fantastic session, saying it was absolutely brilliant,” said Ms Waymouth.

Continuing Education has two, 10 hours blocks of education to be completed – 10 hours verifiable and 10 hours non-verifiable.

Verifiable education relates to complying with the Act, Regulations and Rules and can only be delivered by an REAA approved provider, while non-verifiable education relates to personal professional development, such as attending an industry conference or other industry-based training such as an auction training course or other forms of sales training, like those held by Harcourts’ Academy.

All those with a real estate license now need to demonstrate that they have completed the continuing education requirements in order to renew their real estate license from 2013 on.

The REAA will be auditing approximately 5% of renewing licensees each year so licensees will need to provide a certificate of completion from their approved provider and a log the details of what they did to complete the continuing education requirement, thus renew their license.

“With over 1680 sales consultants in New Zealand Harcourts are committed to delivering the best content and provide the best training facilities possible. We have altered our course timetables, re-advertised existing courses to include continuing education opportunities and our Academy trainers are working very hard to deliver the REAA content effectively,” Mr Duncan said. “Our aim is to provide everyone enough opportunities to complete their 20 hours before they need to.”

The city already faces a severe shortage of rental houses and fast-rising rents as people shift out of red zones and damaged homes.

The head of the Real Estate Institute’s Canterbury-Westland branch, Tony McPherson, said the rental pool was shrinking fast and most sales now were to homeowners.

The trend was happening just as rentals were in high demand from tenants.

“A lot of those selling now are the accidental landlords – those that couldn’t sell their homes at the end of the boom when prices dropped.

“They chose to rent rather than sell after 2008, but they’re selling now that prices are going up.”

McPherson said landlords were deciding not to rebuild because of insurance hassles.

He said other factors driving down rental stock in the city were the number of habitable homes now vacant in the red zones, and landlords moving out of their damaged homes into what had been their investment properties.

Harcourts real estate branch owner Lynette McFadden said many rental houses were being sold out of the rental pool.

“People are seeing demand for homes out there and they are thinking, ‘I don’t want to be a landlord any more; I’ll let it go’.

“And we’ve had people with rental properties who are taking them back to live in because their own homes were damaged, or their family’s homes were damaged, and they’ve jolly well needed them.”

First-home buyers tempted by low interest rates were buying in increasing numbers, many picking up homes that would have been rental properties before the quakes, McFadden said.

Houses in Christchurch are selling in bigger numbers than in any month since 2009, institute figures show.

The latest Building and Housing Department figures show median Christchurch rents have risen 11 per cent in a year, with rents for larger homes rising the most.

The department says improved home ownership affordability is in contrast to declining rental affordability, which has declined sharply as rental stock runs short.

By LIZ MCDONALD

05:00, 21/03/2012

© Fairfax NZ News

In this month’s edition:

Is the market outlook brighter for 2012

Market update on Taupo

As in an investor what goals should you set for the year?