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.

Business owners of the newly named Harcourts East Coast Realty office, Wendy Reeves Gwynn Dunn have an abundance of knowledge with Wendy bringing over 17 years experience in real estate, and Gwynn heading up the property management division.  East Coast Realty will be providing services across the board including specialist rural consultants to provide for the extensive rural population of the East Cape in addition to a large property management division.

Wendy and Gwynn lead a team of 10 staff, focussed on providing a professional and customer centred service for the Gisborne Region. They say that it was the common values and philosophies of Harcourts which lead them become part of New Zealand’s largest real estate company.

“Harcourts is a fantastic brand which has had exceptional growth both within New Zealand and internationally, and we wanted to be a part of it” says Wendy Reeves. “The systems and technology which Harcourts has in place complement our philosophies and so it made sense to join forces to grow with the brand and to deliver exceptional service to the East Coast.”

Harcourts CEO Hayden Duncan welcomes the addition of the eastern based team to Harcourts.

“Harcourts are thrilled that our platform, systems and business model are continuing to attract New Zealand’s leading sales consultants and business owners. The strength and support of our brand really enhances the level and quality of service our sales consultants and business owners can provide raising the overall experience of buying property,” Mr Duncan comments.

East Coast Realty will operate out of their Treble Court Peel Street office, now rebranded as one of the 175 Harcourts offices throughout New Zealand.

For more information please contact:

Wendy Reeves, Business Owner, Harcourts East Coast Realty Ltd Ph: 06 863 0023

King said the reason for the market lift was partly seasonal, but continued a “real improvement” over the past four months.

“It’s the best back to back result we’ve seen for around four years. There are good enquiries from first home buyers and there’s a really noticeable swing in the investor market.”

House supply has tightened in the city and it seemed buyers were reacting to the risk that short stock could lead to price rises, and they wanted to get in before that happened, King said.  There were just over 1000 residential properties currently listed in the city, compared to more than 1500 late last year.

“It’s also very noticeable how many business people are coming in to the city for work. We haven’t seen that for a long time.”

He believed industry was starting to rehire and many of the buying inquiries were from middle management arrivals. The Hamilton market improvement was reflected in latest national sales figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

March data for the country showed 7330 unconditional sales for March, a 25.3 per cent lift on the same time last year, and the best monthly result since November 2007.

The national median price reached a new record high of $370,000 in March, up 1.4 per cent on March last year. The Waikato/Bay of Plenty region median price was $312,500 compared to February’s $315,000.

In March last year the region, which REINZ puts together, was $305,000.

Auckland also recorded a new record median price of $495,200 up 5.4 per cent on the same time last year.

REINZ said sales volume eased in March across the Waikato/Bay of Plenty region after a strong performance in February, although total sales, at more than 1000 for the month, is the largest number of sales since November 2007.

Sales volume growth was strongest in Waikato country, east Bay of Plenty and Tauranga, REINZ said.

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.”

View the item here

In this edition:

What is the Market Outlook for  2012?

Key Rural/Lifestyle Stats for the months of January and December

New Year – New Goals!

If you’re a beach house owner there are some GST changes to be aware of