Harcourts has announced today a new joint venture with NAI Global that will significantly expand the commercial reach and services Harcourts can offer in Australia and New Zealand.

As the latest arm of the Harcourts global empire, NAI Harcourts will take its first steps in Australia and New Zealand this year.

NAI Global is the world’s leading managed commercial network of 5,000 commercial property professionals and 325 offices in 55 countries throughout the world.

A joint venture between Harcourts and NAI Global will introduce a strong global platform of commercial real estate brokerage services to support corporate end users, investors and financial institutions locally and around the world.

NAI Harcourts have now appointed commercial real estate industry veteran Christopher Nicholl as CEO for the new venture. Mr Nicholl recently spoke of the company’s plans in Las Vegas at NAI Global’s annual convention and at Harcourts’ annual Business Leaders Conference.

He comes to NAI Harcourts with more than 20 years’ experience in the commercial property industry. Prior to NAI Harcourts, he was based in Singapore as International Director and Regional Managing Director, Project and Development Services, Asia Pacific with Jones Lang LaSalle. Nicholl also previously served as Executive Director and Board member of Colliers Australia.

Harcourts Managing Director Mike Green said Harcourts is a global real estate franchise group that has more than 625 offices around the world.

“Expanding our presence in the commercial sector is a significant step for the Harcourts Group, and a necessary one to take the company’s growth to the next level,” Mr Green said.

“Over the past few years the market has grown to exceed $1 billion in revenue; yet at the same time we have seen very few new entrants, which offers NAI Harcourts a tremendous opportunity,” Mr Green said.

President and Chief Executive Officer of NAI Global Jeffrey Finn said, “NAI Global has been looking for ways to grow a presence in Australia and New Zealand, and Harcourts is the perfect partner for us to do so.

“The quality and strength of the Harcourts organisation in Australia and New Zealand, combined with NAI Global’s international commercial real estate platform creates a powerful platform for NAI Harcourts,” Mr Finn said.

“NAI Harcourts will give us a strong presence and powerful business generation engine in this important part of the world, connecting businesses and investors from around the globe to this escalating market,” Mr Finn said.

According to the latest statistics from Nielsen Online Market Intelligence, in February the recently revamped Harcourts New Zealand website, www.harcourts.co.nz, received a record 201,384 unique visitors, despite February being the shortest month of the year.

Mr Thomson says the February 2010 figure, which was more than 20% up on the 165,919 unique visitors the Harcourts New Zealand website received in the same month last year, reflects Harcourts strong presence and performance in the New Zealand market and follow the introduction of significant design and functionality enhancements to the Harcourts New Zealand website late last year.

The latest statistics also again confirm the Harcourts New Zealand website is the most visited real estate brand’s website in the country – receiving over 40% more unique visitors than the next most visited real estate group’s website in February.

“We recognise February is typically an active month in the New Zealand real estate market so good website traffic is expected in that month, however to see such large growth over February 2009 is very satisfying,” Mr Thomson says.

“It also backs up the anecdotal feedback from members of the Harcourts team around the country who are reporting a lot of buyer enquiry, with a large volume of properties having come onto the market in recent weeks.”

 Mr Thomson says while sales numbers in January and February have been below expectations online activity is believed to be a good indicator of future sales, so March sales statistics will be an good test of the validity of this view.

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.

Harcourts is growing rapidly, with nearly 630 offices globally. To cultivate this growth, the company has a strong focus on innovation and communication in all facets of the business.

The Business Leaders Conference is designed for Business Owners and Managers throughout the Harcourts Group to analyse the year gone by and share information about what worked and what didn’t to make the year ahead an even bigger success. Included in the programme are interfirm comparisons, where individual businesses provide their financial information which is then used to compile reports which benchmark their business against the entire group and industry.

There were many other sessions spanning the three days, including business sessions on recruitment, maintaining profit post-recession, property management and leadership.

Harcourts Managing Director, Mike Green made several significant announcements, including The Harcourts Foundation’s milestone achievement – it has now raised more than $500,000 since its launch only 18 months ago.

“Our heads of departments also outlined a number of significant initiatives being undertaken this year in technology, marketing and within our training Academy,” Mr Green said.

“Among the many achievements announced, Harcourts launched its latest iPhone application, http://news.harcourts.net/news/ and the Academy announced its RTO status now across every state in Australia, including Victoria, an industry first” he said.

The conference also featured several high quality guest speakers including keynote speaker Giam Swiegers, CEO of Deloitte Australia and motivational speakers James Castrission and Justin Jones; the two young men who kayaked across the Tasman Sea in 2007 unassisted.

“Mr Swiegers addressed Harcourts Business Owners and Managers about how driving deeply into his organisation has supported business growth, recruitment and performance. What Giam has achieved with Deloitte is remarkable, so to have him share just how he went about it was a real privilege for our Group.” Mr Green said.

“Our focus on innovation and collaborative communication is critical in a rapidly changing 21st century,” he said.

“In fact we regard innovation as a responsibility not just a right for all our practitioners.”

This is the first conference for the year for Harcourts, with the national sales Conference happening in May 2010.

“The Conference in May usually attracts upward of 800 delegates from within the Harcourts family, which is a massive event that only gets bigger with each year,” Mr Green said.

Mr Green says the aim was to reach the target of $500,000 in donations by the end of Harcourts’ Business Leaders Conference last week and it was great to have achieved that goal and to be able to share that amazing progress, made since the Foundation’s inception in mid-2008.   

As he explains, The Harcourts Foundation was set up with the aim of providing financial support that helps, grows and enriches local communities, and in just over 18 months the significant milestone of raising half a million dollars in New Zealand and Australia has already been reached.

“These funds have been raised voluntarily by our dedicated Harcourts team members in Australia and New Zealand through various fundraising events, auctions and individual and office donations, with additional support coming from our business partners,” Mr Green says.

To date more than $270,000 of the money raised has been donated to a total of 50 charities from around Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Green says he is extremely proud of the extent to which support for The Harcourts Foundation from Harcourts’ people, their clients and the group’s business partners is growing in New Zealand and Australia.

“For example since November we have had a 25% increase in the number of Harcourts offices choosing to donate an amount ‘off-the-top’ of every sale, with more than 120 Harcourts offices signed up to this particular donation scheme now.”

Mr Green says he encourages charities in New Zealand to visit The Harcourts Foundation website  and to download the grant application form.

“We look forward to funding as many applicants as possible,” he says, noting that the closing date for applications for the next round of quarterly grants is 31 March.

Managing Director for Harcourts Mike Green said the company’s motto for 2010 is ‘one team – in touch’, which will be woven throughout all actions by all Harcourts employees.

“Technology is now making it easier and easier for us to communicate with our audience.

“Our team is constantly utilising this technology to ensure we are operating in all channels of communication,” Mr Green said.

“While last year we focused heavily on upgrading our websites and internal communication tools, this year we are focusing intensely on new media and social media,” he said.

The iPhone application is the latest communications technology to be developed as part of the yearlong campaign to keep both the Harcourts team and wider community updated with all exciting news and information.

The application was designed using the iSite platform by Harcourts’ Head of Marketing and Communications, David Martin and is now available to download.

“Anyone can download this free application that has an Apple iPhone or android handset,” Mr Martin said.

“All the latest media articles, newsletters, and video updates will be delivered direct to your device. Simply visit Apple iTunes or android marketplace to download this free application,” he said.

Mr Thomson says that according to feedback from within Harcourts, New Zealand’s largest real estate group, there is a good pool of buyers in the market and a larger volume of properties coming to the market now.

“So we expect to see February and March being significantly ahead of December and January.  Initial February sales figures are certainly encouraging,” he says.

Reporting the group’s January statistics in the latest Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter Mr Thomson points out that while industry-wide the volume of sales of both residential and rural properties slumped last month, Harcourts had an increase in written sales compared to January 2009 in three of its five regions, reflecting growth in marketshare.

Most notable was a 22% increase in written sales in the group’s Northern region, which encompasses the area from Pukekohe north.   Harcourts also had a 13% increase in written sales in its Central region and a 7% increase in its Wellington region, which encompasses Wellington, the Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, the Kapiti Coast, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Wanganui and parts of the Central Plateau and East Coast districts

Harcourts January figures also show average written sale prices remained solid, with increases in three of its regions (by 3% to 6%) and small drops in its other two regions.

Mr Thomson says there has been a lot of speculation about the impact of tax reform uncertainty and other things in December/January and there is no doubt the final February figures are eagerly awaited to see if any ongoing trends have emerged.

For more information see the latest  Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter. (NZ, February 2010)