Challenging year creates opportunities

Challenging year creates opportunities for Harcourts
Tue, 19 May 2009

One of the most challenging years ever in the global real estate industry has resulted in both unforeseen challenges and courageous outcomes for the Harcourts group, Harcourts International Managing Director Mike Green said today at the launch of Harcourts New Zealand’s annual conference.

Mr Green announced that Harcourts had had another record-breaking year of growth, with the group increasing marketshare and growing internationally by 40% and finishing 2008/09 with 609 offices, having over the last year established significant joint ventures with Homenet in South Africa and Dougmal in New South Wales.

“However, the global financial crisis did not leave Harcourts unaffected, and it was the first time in 10 years that our group wrote less sales than in the previous year, writing $18.3 billion against $19.4 billion the year before,” Mr Green said.

With phenomenal growth in Harcourts offices though, the drop in the volume of written sales stayed at under 6% while the rest of the market suffered a drop of anywhere from 10% to 60%, he said.

Mr Green said the year had also seen growth in other areas, including in the organisation’s international profile, particularly with Harcourts being identified earlier this year by leading world real estate authority Stefan Swanepoel as one of the top four international real estate brands in the “race towards becoming a global real estate company”.

According to Mr Green another highlight of the past year was the fundamental contribution Harcourts’ people had made to local communities around Australia and New Zealand.

“The Harcourts Foundation was launched nine months ago, and in that short time, our people have raised more than $220,000 to donate to groups in need around Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

In terms of technology, Mr Green said the year had seen the development of a new cutting edge IT operating system, Harcourts One, which runs entirely online and uses the very latest Microsoft technology platform .net 3.5 and web 2.0 tools.

“This new system is our most significant technological advancement in 10 years, and puts Harcourts at the forefront of the industry,” he said.

Concluding his address Mr Green said that despite the tough year, Harcourts was stronger than ever and had moved further ahead of its competitors and he was excited about the future of the group.

“Looking at the year ahead there are some very positive indicators and we have some huge plans. With the foundation Harcourts has built and the strength we have this is our year, our time.”

In total more than 700 delegates are attending the Harcourts New Zealand Conference in Auckland this week which concludes with a black tie End of Year Awards dinner on Wednesday night where the top offices and sales consultants for 2008/09 will be announced. Next week around 500 delegates will gather in Adelaide for the Harcourts Australia conference and End of Year Awards.

ENDS

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