Harcourts Announces Asian Expansion

NEWS RELEASE
Harcourts Announces Asian Expansion With First Office in Singapore

New Zealand’s largest and Australia’s fastest growing real estate group, Harcourts International Ltd has signed a Master Licence agreement with highly successful real estate professional, Raymond Chow, CEO, of the Ray International Group, to form Ray Harcourts Singapore.

The Ray International Group was established by Mr Chow in 1993 and specializes in marketing, sales and leasing of prime residential developments in Singapore and the promotion and sale of residential projects and developments from Australia and New Zealand as well as the United States and Europe. The Group also has a strong presence in corporate services, expatriate relocation, special projects such as marina developments, commercial, and property management.

Working both locally and in South East Asia, the Group has a main office in Singapore plus one other office, with a team of around 150 sales consultants and 20 directors running various parts of the operation.

Executive Director of Harcourts International Ltd, Paul Wright met with Mr Chow late 2006 following attendance at a major China Franchise Exposition in Shanghai and said he was impressed by the professionalism and sophisticated global outlook of the operation. “Ray Chow showed a tremendous understanding of our current marketplaces as well as our international growth strategy of which Singapore was a natural progression. His business expertise allows our clients and developers ‘down under’ to tap into the vast investor market in Singapore and Asia."

A Licence Agreement was signed, and Ray Harcourts Singapore was launched in early May this year. “This gives us a highly credible base in Singapore to expose the brand and also source suitable property from throughout Harcourts Australasia to this market. This is our first step as we look to new markets in Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and China,” said Mr Wright.

Mr Chow has 17 years in the real estate industry beginning when he returned to Singapore after completing his university education in the United States. Initially operating as an independent office, Mr Chow became Ray White Singapore for 10 years before reverting to an independent brand.
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Harcourts Announces Asian Expansion With First Office in Singapore Cont…

“A lot of real estate franchises I have investigated are just brands that don’t really work here. Harcourts has a global marketing strategy with its Leading Real Estate Companies of the World membership and is more personal. I look forward to working together and growing together with this partnership giving me the opportunity to expand throughout South East Asia.”

Overviewing current market activity in Singapore, Mr Chow said, “We expect the market to grow tremendously in Singapore as it hosts its first Formula 1 race in 2008, opens its first integrated Casino Resort in 2009, and the world’s first moving stadium in 2010,” among a number of other major global projects.

Mr Chow is projecting to have over 200 mostly full time sales consultants by the end of 2007 which in itself was unusual as he noted around 80 percent of real estate sales consultants in Singapore worked part time in the industry. “Our success comes from not only the dedication of our project marketing team who works hard around the clock to achieve the highest standard of service but also from our philosophy of handpicking the best sales people in the industry to work in the team. All our Sales Associates have vast experiences and have gone through intensive training in order to serve our clients in the various specialized fields.”
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