Archive for the ‘real estate comments’ Category

The Ray White Northland team recently came together at the Ray White Whangarei office to celebrate their first quarter awards. The day started with a sales question and answer session with Toni Sherwood, who is the leading Ray White salesperson in the Northland area. Toni spoke of her success in the area of referrals and high profile marketing through her auction campaigns. Zone chairperson Gary Steed, said that Toni’s session was one of the best the Northland group had seen and it was very inspiring to hear from a salesperson who is achieving such high results in her real estate career.

The awards followed Toni’s presentation and Carey Smith presented the leading businesses and salespeople with their awards. The Northland region has had the highest growth for the company. With 13 offices across the region, Ray White now has a market share of 32%. Ray White Whangarei was the leading office in sales turnover and business growth while Toni Sherwood was the leading salesperson in turnover and Kelly Sackfield from Ray White Bream Bay was acknowledged as the leading salesperson for business growth. Aaron Ratcliffe was recognised as a 2013 Premier member and he joins several other Premier members in the Northland region.

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, said the Northland region had had continuous growth in the last two years, with seven new offices introduced to the region including Ray White Bream Bay, Ray White Tutukaka, Ray White Whangarei, Ray White Paihia, Ray White Kaikohe, Ray White Kawakawa and Ray White Dargaville.

The market share for the area has tripled and sees the Ray White Group selling close to one in three properties through the region.

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The sun shone at 1.30pm on Sunday 26th May, as a crowd gathered at 16 Lunn Ave Mt Wellington to witness Hayden Broadbelt, Owner and Auctioneer of the Ray White Stonefeilds office place this much loved residential home on the market.

The solid three bedroom Huntly brick & tile house was built by the occupying owner, 60 years ago! Somewhat of a celebrity in the neighbourhood, Mr Grbin was well known for the care and attention he placed on keeping his property immaculate; not a blade of grass appeared to ever be out of line.

The section at 16 Lunn Ave is 809m2, zoned Res 6a with the potential to subdivide. You can imagine the interest this property stirred up.

Elaine Lethbridge and Peter Blackler of Ray White Stonefields, on Lunn Ave; the team who marketed the property across the four week campaign said this morning “In 27 years of Real Estate, whilst the market is bouyant, we have never had to work so hard. The level of interest was so high that to service every single interested buyer and to keep the Vendors up to date created a workload like no other”.

That hard work certainly paid off! The Auction kicked off without too much hesitation with a bidder offering $500,000 to start. There were very quickly about six active bidders with the property soon knocking on the high $700,000’s mark, and then Hayden Broadbelt, the Auctioneer really went to work! With a phone bidder and still two active bidders on site the price climbed in $1,000 and $2,000 increments to the mid $800′s. The phone bidder dropped out and Hayden called the magic number of $888,000 as things slowed, just when we thought that might be it, the battle began and did not stop between two very serious parties – until finally the call was made and 16 Lunn Ave was Sold under the hammer for $908,000.

The majority of the crowd stood shaking their heads in amazement through the final stages whilst the Grbin family sat inside sharing mixed emotions of laughter and tears as the realisation a family tenure was most definitely coming to an end.

“I always thought there was an eight in it” said Broadbelt “but to push over $900,000 is great news for Mr Grbin and his family, just great!”

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Ray White New Zealand has recorded a 21% increase on sales for May 2013 in comparison to 12 months ago. The sales turnover has lifted for every month in 2013. Again seeing a total value of sales increase of 8% on April property sales.

New Zealand Chief Executive Carey Smith said that “Sales for May continued to surge on the back of continued confidence from buyers. With interest rate stability and a slight increase in properties available buyers have again been active pushing Ray White sales volumes to a new high. Our Group has also grown with 17 new offices in the 12 months and this is another factor in the strengthening of the Ray White Group sales numbers”.

Overall the company completed $534 million worth of released sales in the month of May. There was a slight increase in properties listed overall being 2106 with 24% of these being marketed by Auction.

The top five businesses in the Group completed record sales with Ray White Ponsonby being the No 1 sales office achieving a record month for an individual office completing $37.1 mil in sales. Ray White City Apartments were No 2 office completing 91 sales. Ray White Remuera completed a personal best sales month of $32 mil and were No 3. Ray White Hamilton were No 4 nationally and also the top Waikato region business. Ray White Metro in Canterbury led their local zone and were ranked as the No 5 office in New Zealand.

In Northland Ray White Whangarei were the top business. In Auckland other leading results saw Ray White Broadway, Ray White Ellerslie, Ray White Howick and Ray White Royal Oak all finish in the top 10 for sales. Ray White Papamoa were the top in the Bay of Plenty. Ray White Wanganui had another outstanding sales month being the top Lower North Island office. In the Upper South region Ray White Richmond were the top office with sales of $7.4 mil. Ray White Metro was the top Canterbury business with Ray White Ashburton being the top Mid Canterbury office. Ray White Dunedin was the No 1 office in the Lower South Island.

Ray White New Zealand has opened new offices in Cromwell and Forrest Hill in May and will be opening new offices in Sandringham and Manly in June.

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Please click here for CEO Comments by Carey Smith that are now posted for April 29,  2013

Past comments are filed here under Previous Comments.

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The Ray White Manurewa team has again supported this year’s Elvis in the Park at the Manurewa Botanical Gardens. In its fifth year, Elvis in the Park is a free concert and picnic day for the South Auckland community featuring New Zealand and Australia’s top professional Elvis singers. They get together on stage and do renditions of Elvis songs for the crowd, which this year was over 7,000.

The chosen charity for the 2013 Elvis in the Park was Kiwi Can South Auckland Programme which is an organisation that has a mission to meet the physical and nutritional needs of Kiwi kids that are less fortunate than others so they can be more engaged in their education and have a better chance of reaching their potential in life. The charity was founded in 2005 and today supports the education of more than 4,500 disadvantaged New Zealand children a day throughout 276 low decile schools nationwide.

The Ray White Manurewa team ran a competition throughout the day to guess the number of balloons within the Ray White car. There were two correct guesses of 83 balloons and the first person to claim the prize was the winner of a marquee. There were over 500 entries.

The organiser of the programmer Kelley French said it was a very successful day and on behalf of Elvis in the Park organisers, they wished to thank Ray White for once again supporting the South Auckland community and the Elvis in the Park event.

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Mid Canterbury Real Estate Limited (First National) and Burdett Real Estate Limited (Ray White) have merged and will trade as Ray White Ashburton and Ray White Methven. The change takes effect today and means Roger Burdett, his four sales staff together with property management will join the former First National office of Jill Quaid in Tancred Street in Ashburton.

Roger Burdett, who has been the franchise owner for Ray White Ashburton will head up the Ray White rural sales team and brings a wealth of experience to the merged entity as he has been in real estate since 1991.

Mid Canterbury Real Estate owner Jill Quaid said “In bringing together the merger it will take our office to more than 20 staff and move us into a leadership position in Ashburton.” Mrs Quaid said the change from First National to Ray White was a very positive one. “Last year Ray White throughout New Zealand opened a new business every 10 working days and from an ownership point of view, Ray White are industry leaders in technology and have a lot to offer through their network of offices throughout the country.” Mrs Quaid, the former Chair of First National in New Zealand, said Ray White offered superior business systems allowing her salespeople to grow their businesses and that Ray White has invested significant amounts into their web marketing and database development. She added that through the Ray White business model she expects her business to achieve much greater results given their increased position in residential sales, rural sales and property management.

Julie Ryan, South Island Business Performance Manager for Ray White, said “The merged new Ray White Ashburton business will make a big impression in the market. The office has now been rebranded to Ray White and with our systems and training we believe that the Mid Canterbury Real Estate team will quickly grow their business to new levels.”

For further information regarding Mid Canterbury Real Estate Limited who are now trading as a member of Ray White please see their website www.rwashburton.co.nz or contact via email ashburton.nz@raywhite.com.

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Heritage week was about celebrating the Lincoln town turning 150 years old. This event took place from the 18th of March through to the 22nd of March. It was a chance to celebrate the Selwyn Districts town 150th anniversary. There were several activities during the week and the highlight took place on Friday, 22nd of March ending with the parade through the main road where everybody dressed up in period costumes. Caroline Lord and Liz McIntosh decided as our administration staff took part and spent the day dressed in period costume. They kindly donated their own time and effort in representing the Ray White Lincoln office.

Steve and Leanne Morgan commented “Caroline and Liz took it upon themselves to take part in the parade to represent Ray White Lincoln” they joined in with the parade and beautifully represented our Ray White team. “Well done girls”.

The town is looking forward to keeping the photos for prosperity and celebrating again in another 50 years. Other activities included a photo display in the local Art Gallery to a Historic tour of the town and Open homes of some of its pre 1900 cottages.

The parade took place on the main road which is the length of the Lincoln Township, Ray White Lincoln is in the middle of town. Several hundred locals took part in the parade which ended with a group photo of all those in costume.

As a team we encourage community support and this was an event to remember.

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Bruce Whillans, head of Ray White Auckland Commercial, has recently completed the sale of the five level URS Centre in College Hill Road in Auckland, which is the biggest deal in Auckland for 2013 and the second largest commercial real estate deal completed in New Zealand this year.

The URS Building sold to Tower Investments for $23.6 million and the price reflects an 8.25% yield which is down from the 8.90%  yield when the property was sold to a European syndicate 18 months ago. The yield reflects a firming market in commercial and this is being experienced with other sales by the Auckland Commercial team.

Bruce Whillans has released the first quarter Whillans Report which makes comment about the activity level in commercial and the outlook for the 2013 commercial markets. The report, put together by senior analyst Brendan Keenan, looks at the vacancy rate, effective rent, yield and incentives for the prime and secondary markets together with the trend lines for Auckland CBD commercial, Auckland industrial and CBD prime retail. The report looks at New Zealand being the new lucky country and also looks at recent property sales together with current investment and development opportunities. Please click here to view the Whillans Report.

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The Ray White Group is pleased to be promoting a Trade Me feature promotion on Trade Me Property through our 2013 National Upgrade Statement.   Ray White is a founding member of Trade Me Property and has one of the largest display of property and feature property on Trade Me. Trade Me Property is the leading Real Estate website in New Zealand.

The Group has a current portfolio presented of just over 14,000 properties for sale and rent. The promotion is part of the Ray White 2013 National Upgrade Marketing Campaign and gives sellers the opportunity to speak with one of our local Ray White Offices about adding value of a Trade Me feature to a new or existing marketing Campaign.

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Ray White New Zealand takes this opportunity on behalf of all our members to thank those clients who have entrusted us with their property needs during the year and we also recognise our landlords who we look after for property management.

This year has been a record breaking year for the Group in New Zealand, with an increase in our membership of 17 new offices and also an additional 1,400 properties under management. This sees Ray White New Zealand operating through 135 offices, with an annual property turnover of $5.6 billion with 16,000 properties in total under management.

The International Group of Ray White has continued to grow, with 45 new offices in Australia and the Indonesian business of Ray White also expanding to be recognised as the market leader. Overall the Ray White Group has 987 offices internationally.

Brian White, Chairman of the Ray White Group, said that Ray White New Zealand has had another very good year in market positioning and also client growth. “Our business in New Zealand has established itself as one of attraction and growth and it is very positive to see the number of new businesses joining our group.”

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, said “The real estate industry this year has returned to a high level of sales and this, particularly in city markets, has also been combined with price rises. We have increased our market share in 12 out of the 13 regions during 2012, with the main areas of Auckland being 22.1% and Christchurch being 26.4% showing a good lift for our company this year.”

The Ray White Group has 135 offices and holds approximately 9,000 properties for sale, which is the second largest in New Zealand.

Click here to view our 2012 International Review.

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