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Our Group stands at 131 offices with just over 1,180 salespeople, 220 property managers and 145 administrators. This year our sales turnover increased by 12%, which saw us transact $3.895 billion in property sales. Our property management portfolio has grown beyond 14,000 and our market share, particularly in the last quarter, has shown good growth across many of the areas we trade.

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The number of sales that will occur within the industry will be 58,000 for the year and will be in line with 2010. The amount of property that has been marketed for sale has dropped by 10% during the year. This has effectively resulted in lower days on market and price increases across most centres throughout New Zealand. Productivity levels for our top 20 businesses increased by 23.8%. There was one interest rate reduction of .5% in March. The official cash interest rate has remained at 2.5% during 2011 and is expected to remain at the same level throughout 2012.

During the year we remained committed to the three pillars of our business growth, being marketing, personal skills and growth. Our marketing platform has seen us redesign our online presence and we have applied a number of superior applications which sees us continue to lead the industry.  Personal websites were also introduced during the year.  We have rebranded our marketing through the media to present further enhanced property presentation. This is now fully integrated with all publishers.

The growth of the company has been evident with the number of new offices that have joined and there have also been several high profile salespeople join Ray White from other companies.

Within this year’s Christmas message we make reference to the significant events that occurred in 2011 throughout New Zealand. To our people and their communities who have been affected by these events, we pay tribute to you.

Our Group will finish the 2011 year in very good shape. The industry continues to polarise.  The significant reinvestment that is required to be a leader in this market is our commitment. 2012 will be a year of continued growth as we enable our plan for genuine leadership.

On behalf of the Ray White corporate team and the White Family, we wish all of our members and their families a relaxed Christmas break and look forward to a successful 2012.

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The Ray White Hamilton City office now has over 40 listings and has completed eight sales in its first month of trading.

Sue Hall, the co-owner of the new Hamilton City office, said that it was a proud moment for her to have many of her friends and clients attend the opening of the new office. She went on to say there has been great confidence from her existing clients to support the business and this has resulted in a new property listing being taken every day for the office. She also commented that to have the support of her business partner and six experienced salespeople already was ahead of her expectations.

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, said that the new Hamilton City office was a watershed moment for the Group. “Sue Hall is one of the highest achieving individual salespeople in New Zealand and to have her on board with Ray White will not only give a great lift to our company but also to her new office.”

To see the opening night speech from Carey Smith, please click here.  Information regarding the new Hamilton City office can be seen at rwhamiltoncity.co.nz.

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Bill Tunzelmann has a well deserved reputation in the economic rural sector of the Waikato.  Formerly with PGG Wrightson, Bill has been recognised as one of PGG Wrightson’s leading salespeople with a career in real estate extending over many years.

Bill Tunzelmann said that he is excited by his move to the new Ray White office in Matamata.  “Our new business will be dual branded as Ray White Rural and also Ray White. I will continue my personal sales of economic units through the Ray White Rural office at Matamata and also plan to build an extensive sales team in residential that will be part of the business.”

Carey Smith, NZ Chief Executive of Ray White, said that the new office in Matamata is an exciting opportunity for the Group. “The new franchise owner Bill Tunzelmann is highly experienced in the rural area of real estate and he will bring a new dimension to the Group with his extensive database and knowledge of rural.”

The new office will also be conducting residential sales and the team is to be headed up by Nerrida Schuler.

The new Ray White Matamata office is expected to be open by 1^st October.  Bill Tunzelmann can be contacted on 021 489 571 or bill.tunzelmann@raywhite.com.  Nerrida Schuler can be contacted on 021 424 711 or nerrida.schuler@raywhite.com.

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Initially Ray White Online was built as an internal communication where members could access stories, updated information and events that our group was undertaking.  The site quickly developed into a broader communication platform which became public just over 18 months ago.  The site gives insights into our group with stories posted most days, with 250 posts attracting over 210,000 visitors since the site has been live to the public.  Other features include new offices, CEO comments, and Elite member details.  A lot of feedback is received in particular from the posts and CEO comments.

The site is enabled to be shared to Facebook and Twitter, giving each communication post a much broader audience.  The site has also recently enabled an area where the public can subscribe to direct updates and feeds at 9am each morning.

We encourage stories from both our members and the broader public and these can be forwarded to swatson@raywhite.com

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Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, said “Auctions are providing vendors with the ability to polarise the buyer pool into a set time frame. With the reduced amount of stock on the market, auctions are also showing an increased response rate from buyers attending open homes and also registering to bid for properties.  The under hammer success rate has gone from being 58% 12 months ago to 71%.  This also is an indicator of the reduced stock on the market and the confidence buyers have in purchasing by auction.  There have been specific examples of peeped up buyer demand where at a recent auction held by Ray White Ponsonby price expectations were exceeded by almost 20%. This was directly attributed to the auction form of marketing.”

The total number of listings currently are at their lowest level for the past decade but the continued relevance of auction marketing now shows that one in five properties are submitted to this form of process. The Ray White Group is appointed to over 20,000 controlled listings per annum and during 2011 14% of those have been by auction and during the last quarter, this has lifted to 21%.

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One of the changes to the referring sites shows that Facebook is now the highest referrer for the Ray White Group for individual properties that are visited from a primary referral source.  During the past 12 months Facebook has consistently moved up the rankings and is now a clear number one referrer to our company website.  Another area of interest in 2010 for the same period the average visitor viewed 3.3 pages and stayed on our site 2.59 minutes.  In a snapshot that was taken last week for the same period, our total visitors has increased by 33%, with the average pages viewed just under doubling to 6.37 and the average time on our site has also increased substantially to 4.32 minutes.

Collectively this shows the consistent and ongoing optimization that the Ray White Group has been putting into their web platform to maintain one of the leading positions in the industry.

Keith Ashkettle, head of technology for Ray White New Zealand, said that two key indicators for visitors were the speed of the site and the rich content of their experience when they come to the site. “Our property display now has integrated features which include school zones, a full suite of mapping and community information.  This has translated into the visitor spending more time on our site to get much greater detail of the property they are showing interest in.”  He went on to say that the enquiry rate from the local Ray White sites has also increased substantially and this has been a highlight in the response to our new platform.

The Ray White Group partner with Trade Me Property, realestate.co.nz and also have total membership to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.  The new web platform is designed to respond at a national, local and individual level and this has kept Ray White as one of the industry leaders in technology in the real estate agency business.

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Wayne Howett, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Auckland, said that “It is great to have Ray White back on board through our Business Club.  The ongoing commitment and the financial support are always needed to support our families through their time of need.”

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, said “Renewing our commitment to Ronald McDonald House Auckland allows our company to play an active role in the community by ensuring families who most need support are able to get it with the help of New Zealand businesses such as ours.”

Ronald McDonald House Auckland began in 1994 with a 10 bedroom house.  In 1997, 2003 and 2006 the House undertook extensive renovations to care for up to 77 families every night.  The latest addition to Ronald McDonald House Auckland has been the new building purchased late in 2010 on Grafton Road which will become a second home for families needing to stay with their children in Auckland.

For further information on Ronald McDonald House Auckland please click here.

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The Ray White Group is considered to be one of the leaders in the New Zealand property industry, currently transacting $4.5 billion dollars of property sales per annum through 133 franchised offices.   We have a position available for a Business Development Executive based in our Auckland office.  This provides an exceptional opportunity for the ideal candidate to apply their real estate skills in a pro-active network.  For more information regarding this position please click here.

The business realigned with a new company name – The Locals Limited – and this embellishes the continued community involvement Ray White Kingsland has.  Chris Hawes said that their business had undergone considerable positive change to reflect their desire to add value to the community. He said “We pride ourselves on our involvement supporting events and fundraisers throughout our trade area.  Our business has grown to have a high market share in residential sales and we have also established a highly successful property management business.”

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, said that the Kingsland office has a strong family orientation.  “This sits alongside perfectly with the Ray White family values.  The way that the individuals come together as a team at Ray White Kingsland is unmatched, potentially within the industry. The volume of sales produced by Lesley and Ruth is consistently recognised and they are the current joint number one sales operators for our group.  Their new company name reflects their continued drive towards lifting market share in their local trade area.  Everything that they do is about delivering the highest standards.”

The Ray White Kingsland team are situated at 437 New North Road, Kingsland.  Their website is rwkingsland.co.nz.

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