Archive for October, 2009

Herald on Sunday Lift out please click here

The Ray White Group are pleased to present, in conjunction with APN, our 44 page property lift-out that will be appearing in the Herald on Sunday this weekend 1st November 2009. This is the second of our feature lift-outs and has over 100 properties displayed on behalf of our vendor clients throughout New Zealand.  This lift-out also features properties from Vanuatu. 

Alongside the lift-out we present the Ray White e-book which is available for our agency business and their clients to distribute through to databases, family and friends.  Ray White prides itself on its ability to provide innovation in marketing and also to offer value through its various marketing mediums, including media, websites, property signage and our own internal client databases. 

The Herald on Sunday is the leading Sunday media and is distributed throughout the North Island with a readership of over 307,000.  

Our next Herald on Sunday lift-out will be published on 28th November 2009 and would welcome enquiries to be part of this outstanding opportunity.

Just over 300 people attended the Auckland Cityside and North Shore quarterly awards last week.  The evening was headlined by the Elite members receiving their recognition.  We also presented our latest Premier members with their awards.  Our market share through each of the zones in Auckland has edged up and is now at 19.1% collectively. One of the areas we talked about was the growth in the West zone which is now the highest market share in Auckland. The quarter results saw the highest production rate for just on two years and the number one salesperson for the quarter in the Cityside was Ruth Hawes from Kingsland, while on the North Shore, Marcus Lee of Milford, took the top award.  The other feature of the night was the recognition that Goodwin Realty received at the National Property Management Conference in being a finalist and effectively named the number one property management business for the industry in Auckland.   Pictured here is Marcus Lee receiving his Elite award from Carey Smith.

Media Release

October 21, 2009

Ray White and Loan Market Join Forces on the North Shore

Property giant Ray White has joined forces with leading mortgage broker Loan Market to open their first dual branded real estate and home finance office in New Zealand.

Ray White New Zealand CEO Carey Smith said the new office will be located at Northcote on the North Shore of Auckland and was an important addition to the Company.

“We expect to establish more combinations with Ray White and Loan Market as part of our long term plan to offer customers the full range of real estate and home loan finance services,” Mr Smith said. The Ray White Group already has a strong presence on the North Shore with 13 offices. “The new business on Lake Road will house 12 salespeople,” Mr Smith said. “It will service a growing marketplace in a diverse community which has a mixture of property from the high-end location of Northcote Point through to a range of residential and commercial properties in Northcote.”

The owner of the new office, Tony Scheirlinck, has had a long term career in real estate and with Ray White on the North Shore, working as a salesperson at Birkenhead before a management role at Torbay. Mr Scheirlinck said a dual branded office with Loan Market would offer clients a total transaction service. “The property and finance industries are a natural fit and having Loan Market within the Ray White office is an additional benefit to our staff,” he said. 

The Loan Market business will be run by high profile North Shore brokers Scott Charlesworth and Stuart Matheson.  Loan Market has 48 brokers throughout New Zealand and this is its eighth retail outlet.

With the opening of the Northcote office, the Ray White Group will have 135 salespeople servicing the North Shore market.

The Ray White Group has 131 offices throughout New Zealand, trading just in excess of $5 billion in turnover per annum. 

ENDS

Further inquiries:

Carey Smith

Ray White New Zealand CEO

Ph: +64 9 377 5069

About Ray White

Ray White is the largest real estate and property group in Australasia. The company, established in 1902 at Crows Nest in Queensland, has almost 1,000 individual offices spread across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, more than 8,000 staff, annual sales turnover in excess of $30 billion and manages more than 200,000 rental properties.

It was early on a Saturday morning that I went down to the news agency in Mt Albert to collect what was one of the first New Zealand Herald real estate sections in tabloid.  But what made this day more remarkable was the fact that our company had officially changed its name to the public through a White Out statement of 30 pages to now be known as Ray White Real Estate. Exactly 10 years ago we became Ray White.  There was a period of history before this that involved two brands; United and Ray White United.  But it really wasn’t until we were brave enough to run with Ray White that we started to get traction.  It was our sales team who drove the change to Ray White.  It gave them consistency in their presentations; it gave them the ability to draw from a greater history; and most importantly it offered a future to our salespeople when they were talking with vendors. 

At that time we had 71 offices and we were turning over just under $600 million a year.  Today we produce 10 times that turnover and our business has doubled adding 70 offices and 650 salespeople.   It is one of those moments where we can quietly reflect on our success as it is just a line in the sand.  The next 10 years we have so much to look forward to as the real estate industry redefines itself into a value and service offering that will be recognised in the community to be of greater need. 

Thank you to our foundation members and to all those who continue to entrust Ray White with their future career.  The best years are ahead of us.

Ray White Group Chairman Brian White has spent almost half a century at the coalface of the Australian property industry. He reflects on some of the changes affecting Australian real estate during the past 10 years – one of the most turbulent decades in history for Australian property.

The return of optimism to Australian property markets as this decade comes to a close brings a contrast to the same position 10 years earlier when all the talk was ‘how long will this property surge continue?’

Ten years ago the Sydney property market was more buoyant than it had been for a decade. The Sydney Olympics were soon to begin and the question was – with the completion of the Olympic Games, would Sydney still be able to maintain the same level of values as those that had been established as the 20th century came to a close?

It was Sydney that was driving the nation, in sharp contrast to the New South Wales property market of recent times. The 10 year period from the commencement of the 21st century saw some remarkable surges in markets that had always seemed to be relatively secondary in the Australian context.

Sea change became a new word in the property landscape, which opened up vast new areas of Australia’s coastline and gave credibility to the markets which had previously been lacking. Now real estate agents in so many of these centres became to seeing interstate buyers and people from other regions arrive in town keen to purchase. Anything with water views or close to water beach amenities suddenly was being re-rated upwards.

Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of all of this was Queensland with its vast coastline and seemingly endless opportunities for a new lifestyle based upon the philosophy that it was no longer critical to live in the major cities. Other markets to benefit from this included Western Australia and NSW. The strength of these new momentums changed a lot of the relative values. Suddenly, Melbourne was no longer dearer than Brisbane – the situation that always existed before.

Areas in Sydney became lacklustre when compared to the coastal based centres of NSW. As prices in Australia increased at varying rates all of this was to be challenged by the global financial crisis. As always, those markets that surged in value were the first to be repriced and reassessed.

Suddenly members of the community had greater affinity for original locales. The first properties to be sold were the ‘lifestyle’ ones, resulting in a large number of properties coming on the market. Markets such as Adelaide and Melbourne – which had seen relatively little surge during the golden years – came into their own. They became the more successful markets in recent years.

The battered Sydney market received an enormous injection of confidence, particularly from the first home owners grant, and as the first decade of the 21st century ended it was better balanced and more active than it had been for years.

Not only were the first home owner markets in a state of recovery but strength was returning to the more expensive properties bordering Sydney Harbour, which began to have their best results for quite some time.

In addition, new trends emerged. Suddenly it was important for people to be living close to work and other amenities with many examples of families living in apartment buildings, which were previously regarded as ‘non-family’ abodes.

For some, it has become preferable to live in a two bedroom flat at Bondi Beach rather than the big homes that have been built on large blocks in Sydney’s Western suburbs, even though the apartment at Bondi Beach may only comprise two bedrooms for a family of four. (Recent reports suggest that Australians have been building the world’s largest average sized home.)

It’s also clear as this decade comes to an end that Australia has avoided a dramatic downturn in prices that has been experienced in many other parts of developed economies. The current support for the mid to up market properties is quite significant and will form the basis for a strong 2010.

It’s all very well to have a strong first home owners market but at the end of the day it’s the upmarket that will ‘pull through’ in setting levels of confidence that percolate right through market structures.

Media Release

October 09, 2009

Ray White’s New Zealand Sales Up 34 per cent

Australasia’s largest real estate and property group, Ray White, boosted sales in New Zealand during September by 34 per cent compared to the same time last year. Ray White New Zealand CEO Carey Smith said most regions reported a significant increase in turnover with the Auckland market leading the way with sales of $210 million.

“For the seventh month running Auckland has increased its turnover this month by 55 per cent,” Mr Smith said. “This result was underpinned by an increase in controlled listing numbers which were in excess of 1,200 properties for the month. “Mr Smith said total stock numbers for Ray White in September increased by 12 per cent, with the average days on market lowered from 39 to 36 days. He said the boost in stock numbers led to an increase in turnover in most regions. “The Lower North Island showed a considerable lift, up 90 per cent, which was reflected by a 75 per cent increase in controlled listings, while the Upper South Island showed an increase in listing stock of 60 per cent,” he said. Mr Smith said the Canterbury region achieved sales of $65 million, up five per cent on September 2008, and the Central North Island boosted turnover two per cent to $30 million. He said the Lower South Island had been enjoying a strong year for sales and new Ray White offices in Arrowtown and Alexandra increased turnover by 46 per cent.

The Ray White Group has 131 offices in New Zealand turning over almost $4.3 billion in property sales per annum.

ENDS

Further inquiries

About Ray White

Ray White is the largest real estate and property group in Australasia. The company, established in 1902 at Crows Nest in Queensland, has almost 1,000 individual offices spread across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, more than 8,000 staff, annual sales turnover in excess of $30 billion and manages more than 200,000 rental properties.

With the market showing some strong signs of recovery, Ray White Royal Oak owners Martin Honey and Rohan Thompson have embarked on a recruitment drive that has had some remarkable results. Over the past 3 months the duo has attracted 9 salespeople to join their already successful team.

The Royal Oak office joined Ray White in February this year and is located in the heart of the Royal Oak Mall.  Martin and Rohan attribute their recruitment success to several factors.  Firstly, they provide a modern and stylish office for their team to feel proud of; and secondly, Martin feels very strongly about training his team and spends a lot of time with all new salespeople teaching them the finer details of real estate. These two factors combined have proven to be a winning formula. In addition to this they are now committed to holding a recruitment night every month to showcase the power of the Ray White brand and what the Royal Oak office can provide to new people joining them.

Pip Nielsen Realty, Ray White Burnside has always had an association in support of the Cholmondeley Children’s Home in Governors Bay Christchurch, however recently that support was taken to a new level with the arranging of a highly successful charity auction.  The auction was held on a Friday evening at the Russley Golf Club and was attended by in excess of 90 bidders all competing for some exciting items. All of the staff approached clients and business contacts who generously donated a wide selection of items to be auctioned or raffled.  Auctioneer Craig Prier was kept on his toes taking bids for such items as hot laps in a Porsche, a pamper package in Christchurch for a day with luxury accommodation an added bonus for the evening, and a thrills weekend including accommodation in Hanmer. Other highly prized items included golf packages, original art, an Apple iPod and some great wine.  The event proved to be a great team building exercise and an opportunity to meet with past and potential clients. The staff were thrilled to raise in excess of $8,000 which we are sure will be put to good use helping children and parents in Canterbury through Cholmondeley.