Posts Tagged ‘Ray White New Zealand’

The Ray White Group this week held their annual business owners symposium in Queenstown, which was attended by over 110 of the company’s franchise owners.

The symposium focused on the development of the Ray White New Zealand strategy for the group. In more recent times the Group has gone through a considerable growth phase, with a new office joining the network every month over the past two years and this has accelerated in more recent times.  The symposium also covered the area of opportunity for the business owners, with presentations from John Wall of Talent 2 and Steve D’Souza, the owner of the Kalamazoo Group.

Another topical presentation included a debate between Greg Hornblow, General Manager of APN, and Brendon Skipper, head of Trade Me Property.  The use of marketing platforms remains the main driver of lead generation for property sales and the value of both online and offline marketing is seen to be important in the total marketing mix.

During the Symposium, New Zealand Chief Executive Carey Smith detailed the growth plans for the Ray White Group, which is aligned with the current activity the Group is undertaking. He announced the company had more members join and commit to the Ray White Group than ever before; with seven offices opening in the next four weeks, including Sunnynook, Mt Albert, Hamilton City, Matamata, Whangarei, Bream Bay and Tutakaka. He also said that there was considerable interest from five other markets in which the Group is looking to have presence.

The overall commitment of the Ray White Group to growing market share was expressed as the real estate industry continues to polarise. Ray White see that providing the very best technology and business services to its franchise owners as the cornerstone of its continued success.

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At the Ray White 2010 Annual Awards held last night at the SkyCity Grand Hotel Lesley Hawes and Ruth Hawes were awarded individually equal Salesperson of the Year within the Ray White New Zealand Group.

Lesley Hawes began her real estate career in Wellington in the early 1990s, moving to Auckland with her family in 1995 to live and work in real estate in the Western Springs area of Auckland.  Every year since 1999 Lesley has been ranked in the top three salespeople in the group.

Ruth Hawes, after a successful 10 year career in nursing, decided to join her mother at their top performing office in Kingsland just over two years ago. She began working as an apprentice to her mother to gain the experience to stand her in good steed to take up a position as an individual salesperson.  It was in the latter part of 2009 when Ruth began to facilitate sales in her own right.

In presenting the award for the Salesperson of the Year, Carey Smith, NZ Chief Executive, said that Lesley and Ruth, individually and together, typify many of the values that are shared within Ray White.  “They are family, they have a love of real estate and specialise in the community they live in.  They have a unique blend of caring but also an efficiency of knowing how to have an outcome of a successful sale.”  Lesley Hawes, in accepting her award, recognised her team, including Ruth, her husband Chris and the balance of the staff at the Kingsland office.  She said her results would not be possible without such wonderful people that she has the ability to call on.  Ruth Hawes also spoke about family values and how working with families in assisting them buy and sell property was a wonderful career that she loved.  Being recognised with her mother individually, but collectively, was the highlight of her career.

The Ray White Group in New Zealand has 1,315 salespeople and has 136 offices trading $4.71 billion in property sales annually.

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Ray White New Zealand celebrated their 2010 annual awards last night at the SkyCity Grand Hotel, with just over 550 company members joining dignitaries and suppliers to celebrate our national award winners.

The evening opened with those in attendance observing one minute’s silence in remembrance of the victims of the Christchurch earthquake and the Pike River miners.

The Chairman of the Ray White Group, Brian White then spoke which covered the impact on the community and our members of recent tragedies in New Zealand and Australia. He spoke of how the company came together as a family and showed a spirit within our group that had never been seen before and the way in which our Canterbury members had offered support to our Queensland members’ only weeks prior to the 22nd February earthquake in Christchurch.  He talked about the commitment of our company, the growth in market share and how the property business continues to evolve and understanding the question of ‘Where To’ being an obsession within the company leadership.

Paul White, head of Ray White Rural, then spoke of the increasing presence the Ray White Group has across the rural sector in both New Zealand and Australia; saying that Ray White is recognised as the leading rural property sales business and how, in more recent times, the area of livestock sales has played a role in the overall rural business.

The awards cover administration, property management and residential property sales.  Members from throughout the Group from Kaitaia to Invercargill were represented.  There are 15 categories in which awards are recognised; with the major category being the Salesperson of the Year, which was awarded to Lesley Hawes and Ruth Hawes from the Kingsland office, who were individually equal first.

Another highlight of the awards is the CEO Cup which is presented by New Zealand Chief Executive Carey Smith.  This year Phil Horrobin of Ray White City Apartments received the CEO Cup award. In recognising Phil Horrobin, Carey Smith said that since he has known Phil as a company member over the last eight years, he has been involved in the city market and has grown a business from a new office to now being the recognised leader in city apartment sales.  The office sells one in four apartments and has recently merged its sales division to add Roebucks Realty and an additional location in the Britomart.  Carey went on to say that Phil Horrobin’s best years are still in front of him, but he had made such an impact on the company that he richly deserved the CEO Cup award.

For a full list of the Ray White award winners please click here.

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As part of the 4th NZ Herald Property Report to be published on the 7th of March 2011 – Ray White has developed real time market reports through every area of New Zealand. To request your real time Market Review please email kashkettle@raywhite.com.

Please see sample report of the inner western suburbs of Auckland

Please see the add that Ray White place in the Property Report

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The first quarter reflected this confidence with 14,500 sales.  Our group market share hit a new high and this set a platform for what we felt was going to be a year that saw the industry return to better times.  In April the Government started to mute on the basis of changes to LAQCs and also personal taxation advantages.  Their dissertation behind this was to make property less friendly and steer people towards personal saving with the benefit of tax deductions and a higher awareness of Kiwi Saver. In the midst of all this came two interest rate increases.  These were minor but enough to move property into an unfriendly position and to again be questioned as to its value from an investor point of view. 

The second quarter plummeted. Sales were almost 30% down on the previous year and close to mirroring the numbers of 2008.  Our group was acclimatised to these conditions, but you got the feeling this was going to set in for some period of time.  In June we had our third interest rate rise which was enough to send the signal to the market that property sales were going to go into hibernation.  Most in the industry understand that to have buyers you need to have sellers.  Sellers come to the market when there is confidence that they can market their property to receive a satisfactory return on the price that they may have originally paid.   The lack of confidence from sellers then began to domino towards the buying market. 

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Kyle Pitman congratulates Ricky Cave

The first Quarterly Awards celebrations since the September 4 earthquake were held this week in Christchurch.

A distinctly different atmosphere from what one would have expected was experienced by all in attendance, and it was a night of celebration and a comfortable collectiveness was felt by all.

Pictured is Ricky Cave, a young man very new to our company. He has excelled early in his new chosen career. Ricky has bought a huge amount of energy into the Canterbury zone and has completely focused on auctions from the start, which has been paramount to his incredible success. The energy in Canterbury is so positive and it is a credit to our business leaders and teams.

Our top sales person for the quarter July – September was accredited to Sarah Booth and Brendan Shefford (Big Red). and the top office for the quarter was Northwood.

A special mention must be made for our Lincoln office, they have defied the odds with the happenings in this region. Lincoln reported a personal best month of just over six million, an amazing result!

The Ray White Remuera office, led by Megan Jaffe, was the number one residential office for the Group in October, turning over in excess of $23 million worth of property sales.

The Remuera office has continued to grow market share throughout their core trade area with a consistently high volume of sales through their sales team.  The average sale price for the Remuera office is just over $2.115 million and this has seen the business increase its overall turnover year to date to be the number two growth office nationally.  Megan Jaffe said “The month was a direct reflection of the increased activity through the marketplace combined with a continued focus on skills within the team.”  She also said that during 2010 the teamwork within the Remuera office had enabled each salesperson to list property with confidence on the basis that they had a strong support network behind them.  She went on to say that marketing has redefined the direction of the office as they continue to be appointed to high profile property listings.

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of the Ray White Group, said “It is pleasing to see the growth of the Remuera office and the market confidence that has been secured by Ray White throughout the area.   The office has maintained a steady growth over the last 12 months and the October results are a direct reflection of the culture and the success within the office.”

Although trading for the Ray White Group decreased through the 134 offices, the top businesses within the company increased their turnover by more than 7%.

The number one office is the newly established Auckland Commercial business which is headed up by Bruce Whillans. Bruce has been appointed to a number of substantial commercial portfolios and these have now been successfully sold by Bruce and his team.  They completed just over $34 million of property sales for the month.   The number two office throughout New Zealand and the number one residential office was Ray White Remuera.  The office completed over $23.5 million worth of sales.  The Ponsonby office was number three in the Group.  The listing numbers for this business have increased for the month. The number four office was located on the North Shore being Ray White Glenfield.  They completed a highly successful month with over 30 property sales.  The number five office was Ray White Mt Albert, having a staff of 24 on the sales team. They completed 13 auctions and 13 exclusive listings, transacting over $6 million in property sales.  Overall the top five businesses in the Group increased their turnover by 7% to trade just under $90 million in property sales.

Papamoa was the top business in the Central North Island.  Palmerston North was the number one office in the Lower North Island.  Richmond had a successful month in the Upper South Island being the top office in their zone.  In Canterbury, Lincoln completed over $6 million in sales to be the best business in that region.  Arrowtown were the number one office in the Lower South Island, having a successful month completing over $5 million in property sales.

Ray White Herald on Sunday Lift out

The Ray White  Group is pleased to present, in conjunction with APN, our 40 page property lift-out that will be appearing in the Herald on Sunday this weekend 1st August 2010. This is the seventh of our feature lift-outs and has 108 properties displayed on behalf of our vendor clients throughout New Zealand.

Alongside the lift-out we present the Ray White e-book link 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 352,000. We welcome all enquiries to be part of these outstanding marketing opportunities.

We are pleased to announce the cover for our upcoming lift out of the NZ Herald on Sunday edition to be published on Sunday 1st August 2010.

The cover is taken of Mount Ruapehu in the North Island. Please click here to view the cover.