Harcourts NZ CEO predicts more positive figures

Harcourts NZ CEO predicts more positive figures

23 February 2009: While across the industry historically low numbers of properties changed hands last month, Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson says Harcourts’ performed strongly and initial February figures suggest a more “encouraging” level of activity this month.

Mr Thomson says that according to feedback from within Harcourts, New Zealand’s largest real estate group, there is a good pool of buyers in the market and a larger volume of properties coming to the market now.

“So we expect to see February and March being significantly ahead of December and January. Initial February sales figures are certainly encouraging,” he says.

Reporting the group’s January statistics in the latest Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter Mr Thomson points out that while industry-wide the volume of sales of both residential and rural properties slumped last month, Harcourts had an increase in written sales compared to January 2009 in three of its five regions, reflecting growth in marketshare.

Most notable was a 22% increase in written sales in the group’s Northern region, which encompasses the area from Pukekohe north. Harcourts also had a 13% increase in written sales in its Central region and a 7% increase in its Wellington region, which encompasses Wellington, the Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, the Kapiti Coast, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Wanganui and parts of the Central Plateau and East Coast districts.

Harcourts January figures also show average written sale prices remained solid, with increases in three of its regions (by 3% to 6%) and only small drops in its other two regions.

Mr Thomson says there has been a lot of speculation about the impact of tax reform uncertainty and other things in December/January and there is no doubt the final February figures are eagerly awaited to see if any ongoing trends have emerged.

ENDS

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