Real estate giant Harcourts announces global commercial joint venture
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…
Tags: Business Leaders Conference, Chris Nicholl, global expansion, International, Jeffrey Finn, Mike Green, NAI Global, NAI Harcourts
How to Banish Damp
The high level of rainfall in many areas this summer has brought to the fore the home maintenance problems that can be caused by the presence of damp.
Outdoors, the worst effect of damp is to cause walls to become waterlogged and collapse, but before that it usually also causes plaster and paint to bubble, burst and flake off. Indoors, it will cause a musty smell to pervade cupboards, rooms or even the whole house, and in severe cases cause unsightly mold and falling tiles in showers, bathrooms, laundries and kitchens.
Indeed, says Martin Schultheiss, CEO of Harcourts Africa, damp needs to be taken seriously and treated properly, otherwise it will be a continuing source of discomfort and even illness to the homeowner – and a severe deterrent to potential tenants or buyers of the property.
“Serious rising damp from the foundations will of course require the services…
Tags: Consumer Affairs, Harcourts South Africa
RBA rate rise a sound decision for economic sustainability
Harcourts Managing Director Mike Green has applauded the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision to increase official rates by 0.25 per cent.
“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…
Tags: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian economy, Australian real estate market, Harcourts International, Mike Green, RBA
Harcourts Academy is now Australia-wide!
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…
Tags: Future Leaders Programme, Harcourts Academy, Irene Green
Record month for Harcourts’ website
Last month Harcourts’ New Zealand website attracted its highest ever number of unique visitors, Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson announced today.
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…
Harcourts Career Pathway leads to New Office
Home-grown Harcourts real estate achievers recently opened the brand new Realty Plus office in Hamilton Hill, offering a superior real estate experience to locals in the area.
Business Owners Alex Ricciardi, Gordana Caruso and Tracy Garbes all gained management and leadership training through the Harcourts Future Leaders Programme. Each has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the local real estate market, equipping them with an intrinsic knowledge of the Hamilton Hill area.
Opening their own office was a natural progression for the trio, whose experience within the brand convinced them of the strength of support, systems and technology offered to ensure their long-term business success.
“Having been involved with Harcourts for some time, we know and trust the Harcourts support team and have seen how they have helped others get their first businesses up and running. To us, it was vitally important to ensure we have…