Harcourts comes to Kimberley

The international Harcourts real estate group is now represented in Kimberley, following the conversion of leading local agency Homenet Kimberley to the powerful new brand.

And agency principal Marina Smith, who is well-known in the diamond city’s real estate market and heads up a dynamic team of seven agents, expects the conversion to attract quite a lot of attention.

“Kimberley is a relatively small place and any changes to its business make-up are picked up quickly. Such a significant shift from one brand to another will definitely not go unnoticed and that will of course mean good publicity.”

But even more important, she says, is what the changeover will mean to the city’s real estate consumers. “With 600 offices internationally, Harcourts has the experience and know-how to equip its people with the training, systems and technology that makes it possible to deliver stellar service at a completely different level than SA consumers have previously experienced.”

The transition to the Harcourts name follows last year’s partnership deal between Harcourts International and South Africa’s Homenet group, which has now been renamed Harcourts Africa and is in the process of re-branding all its offices around the country.

Harcourts Africa CEO Martin Schultheiss says the group represents the ‘next generation’ of estate agency practice and is creating huge excitement in the SA real estate industry. “We see this in the volume of enquiries we are getting from both independent agencies and disillusioned members of other real estate groups, and in the fact that we have added 18 brand new offices to the group since the start of the year – making us by far the fastest-growing group in the country at the moment.

“We have also now rebranded more than 40 of the old Homenet offices that formed the basis of the group, and are on track to have the whole rebrand exercise completed by March 2010.”

Harcourts is also the fastest-growing real estate group in Australia and the biggest in New Zealand. It also operates in China, Fiji, Indonesia, Singapore and Zambia and has been rated by world real estate authority Stefan Swanepoel as one of the top five international real estate brands.

The global group’s 600 offices employ 4000 sales consultants who sell more than $19.5bn worth of property every year.