The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) is delighted to announce that Aaron Davis from Harcourts Blue Fern
Realty, Henderson, is the winner of the 2019 REINZ National Real Estate Auctioneering Championships. Robert Tulp from
Harcourts Cooper & Co (Hobsonville) was the runner up in the senior competition.
This result comes after two days of intense competition held at Events on Khyber in Grafton where 28 competitors from
across the country were vying to be the best of the best in this annual competition. This was the highest number of
senior competitors since 2015. The major event sponsors for this year’s Championships were Property Press and realestate.co.nz.
Mark Morrison from Harcourts Auckland was the winner of the ‘Rising Stars Competition’ where a 13-strong field competed
to take home the Colin Brown Memorial Cup which shows a promising future for auctioneering in New Zealand. Chris
Greenhill from Harcourts Marlborough and George Yeoman from Bayleys (Auckland) were joint runners up in the Rising Stars
section.
For the second year running, a Secondary Schools’ division was included as part of the overall competition. In the
Secondary Schools’ Competition, Pippa Morris from Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland was the winner and Max Hart from
Kerikeri High School was the runner up.
Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ says: “There was an extremely strong field of competitors in this year’s finals,
and congratulations to all our competitors and Aaron for winning the competition. The preparation and training that
these contestants go through in the lead up to this competition is nothing short of admirable. Every year I am impressed
by the skill and determination put on show over the two days of competition, and we are looking forward to seeing Aaron
and Robert competing in the Australasian Championships in October.
“Looking at the Rising Stars and Schools’ competitions, there is once again some great talent coming through the ranks
and looks like we’ll continue to have a strong field of competitors moving forward,” concludes Norwell.
Mark Sumich, Chief Judge, commented: “Yet again our Championships have provided palpable evidence of the evolution of
the auctioneering craft. The callers’ ability to cope with complicated albeit contrived bidding sequences, was testament
to the training they are undertaking. Their often-casual output, with innovation and humour, belies an accuracy and
competitive instinct which is off the radar. There appears little doubt that New Zealanders are providing the benchmark
for calling across Australasia.”
The Senior winner and runner up will both represent New Zealand at the Australasian Auctioneering Championships held
this October in Melbourne.