Posts Tagged ‘real estate’

Ray White is pleased to announce the opening of Ray White Newlands, which is located in the northern suburbs of Wellington approximately 8 kilometres from the city centre. Newlands is located in an area which looks over the Wellington Harbour and the Hutt Valley and has a local college, intermediate and also primary school.

The Newlands office forms part of the Wellington City Real Estate group owned by Vicki Collins. Ray White is the only real estate office in the Newlands area. Vicki Collins said the office was her company’s first steps into expanding their business across Wellington. “Newlands is an ideal market that is continuing to grow and has a diversified selection of property.”

Carey Smith, Chief Executive of Ray White New Zealand, welcomed the move into Newlands as the first real estate agency in the area. “Vicki’s local knowledge of the Newlands area over many years will be of benefit to the new office and office manager Robert Cutts also has good marketplace knowledge.”

Newlands is an active marketplace that has an average sale price of $366,000 which represents good value given its close proximity to the city. There are approximately 95 listings available in the area and sales numbers have remained active, with the average days on market being approximately 14.

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Ray White Hamilton City officially opened last week to a gathering of close on 150 people, who celebrated Sue Hall and her business partner Richard Jacobsen opening their new Ray White office on Mill Street. During the evening there were a number of speeches held which reflected on where the business was today in such a short period of time.

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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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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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.

As an industry leader in property management throughout New Zealand, Ray White are seeking an individual who has extensive knowledge and understanding of property management.  The position will align with our ambition to grow our property management business through our 132 franchised offices in New Zealand.  For more information regarding this position please see the advertisement which will be appearing in the REINZ magazine on 1st May.   For other positions available with the Ray White Group please see the Opportunities page

Ray White welcomes the new Real Estate Agents Act together  with the new Real Estate Agents Authority (REAA) that aims to provide greater transparency and professionalism in the industry and more protection for consumers involved in residential and commercial real estate transactions.

Under the new Act, anyone who is carrying out, or wants to carry out, “real estate agency work” must be individually licensed by the REAA as an agent, branch manager or salesperson, unless specifically exempted. “Real estate agency work” is defined in the new Act as any work done or services provided, in trade, on behalf of another person for the purpose of bringing about a transaction. “Transaction” is defined widely as the sale, purchase, or other disposal or acquisition of (i) a freehold estate or interest in land, (ii) a leasehold interest in land; (iii) a licence that is registrable under Land Transfer Act 1952 (LTA); (iv) an occupation right agreement within the meaning of the Retirement Villages Act 2003; or (v) any business (either with or without any interest in land).

Licensing permits:

agents to carry out real estate agency work on his or her own account (whether in partnership or otherwise);

branch managers to carry out real estate agency work for or on behalf of an agent; and

salespersons to carry out real estate agency work for or on behalf of an agent, provided the salesperson is supervised by an agent or a branch manager when carrying out any real estate agency work.

The new Act will extend to people carrying out the sale and purchase of businesses on behalf of others (business brokers),although this will not apply to the sale and purchase of shares unless the shares entitle the holder to a licence that is registrable under the LTA.  There are 2 approved guides for consumers New Zealand Residential Property Agency Agreements Guide and the New Zealand Residential Property Sale and Purchase Agreements Guide.

At the real estate agent’s branch office, branch managers are now an option rather than a requirement, but any person assisting an agent with real estate agency work is likely to need a licence, at least as a salesperson, and the element of proper supervision and management required for all salespersons must be met either by an agent or a branch manager.

Additional changes

Some further key changes under the new Act and related regulations include:

New regulatory body. The independent REAA has been established to replace the role previously performed by the industry’s Real Estate Agents Licensing Board. The REAA is responsible for licensing, complaints, disciplinary action for unsatisfactory conduct, industry standards (including the newly issued Professional Conduct and Client Care Rules 2009) and consumer information.

Improved disclosure obligations. Real estate agents have additional legal responsibilities, including obligations to provide certain information to consumers. This information includes approved guide publications, new requirements to disclose conflicts of interest and also disclosure by the agent of the source of, and estimate amount of, all rebates, discounts or commissions that the agent will receive.

New rules on agency agreements. A client of a real estate agent must be given a copy of the agency agreement within 48 hours after signing it. Sole agency agreements have a cooling off period until 5pm on the working day following signing, allowing time for the client to cancel the contract. However, if work undertaken on a transaction during the cooling off period enables the conclusion of a contact, that contract will be binding.

Public register. There will be a public register of every person licensed under the Act which will include a record of whether a licensee has been subject to disciplinary action in the last three years.

No compulsory REINZ membership. Membership of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand is no longer compulsory for agents.

New complaints and disciplinary processes. New complaints and disciplinary processes have been introduced, including a new Real Estate Disciplinary Tribunal, administered by the Ministry of Justice, to deal with more serious complaints of unsatisfactory conduct or misconduct by any person (or officer of a company) licensed (or formerly licensed) under the Act. Under the new system, licensees can face a fine of up to $10,000 or, in the case of a company, $20,000 for complaints bought against them and for serious misconduct complaints heard by the Tribunal, individuals can be fined up to $15,000, or $30,000 in the case of companies. Agents can also be ordered to pay up to $100,000 in compensation to the complainant or have their licence cancelled or suspended. Under the old regime, most complaints were dealt with at REINZ sub-committee level, which meant that decisions about disciplinary action were made by fellow real estate agents, and $750 was the maximum imposable fine.

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.

Mark Te Whare

 The auction spectacular will again be an unprecedented event.   For Auckland the  line up will begin in the North Shore on Tuesday 23^rd June at the Spencer on Byron (Takapuna), followed by West Auckland on Friday 26^th June at the Lincoln Green (Henderson) and Commercial and all other zones on Wednesday 24^th June at the Westin Hotel (Auckland Central). 

Mark Te Whare (pictured) will be the leading Auctioneer in New Zealand he has had a distinguished career in auctioneering and real estate. During his career in Australia he was recognised among the top five auction performers for North Brisbane and won a number of newspaper marketing awards. He has called more than 3,000 residential, commercial and rural property auctions, ranging in value from $96,000 to $16 million. He was also Named Ray White Queensland New Auctioneer of the Year in 2002  and was a finalist in the Real Estate Institute of Queensland Auctioneer of the Year Award 2007 and 2008.

We have now become a sociable network.  Increasingly networking has been taken online where people join together as friends or within a business network through two primary sites; Facebook and Twitter.  To enable our Vendors, Buyers and Group Members to have a social representation we have placed an icon on everyone of our properties on the website. It is a share and save button which has the ability to transfer property to an account owner of any social website.  

We are the first Real Estate company in New Zealand to offer this service to the broader online Real Estate community.  Added to this is our Streetview and the ability to have 80 photos of each property.  www.raywhite.co.nz  and the 125 local websites are cutting edge of the New Zealand property industry.  If you follow this link it will take you directly to one of our local website properties and we encourage you to run your mouse over the top of the share and save button at the left hand side of the screen.