NEWS RELEASE
Harcourts Leads ‘E-Real Estate’ with New Initiatives
Harcourts' ongoing lead in the highly competitive 'e-real estate' revolution has seen it retain its number one spot as
the most visited real estate group website in the country for over two years now.
During the month of October www.harcourts.co.nz had over 300,000 visitors.
Harcourts International Ltd’s Chief Technology Officer, Jason Wills, said their technology team maintained a strong
focus on meeting consumer demands and was continuously providing new and innovative services for the public. The latest
initiatives just launched include:
Personal Notifier – now with Text Messaging
In a New Zealand first for real estate, just over a year ago Harcourts launched the Personal Notifier function of
www.harcourts.co.nz to automatically email registrants with properties meeting their criteria. Over 10,000 people from
throughout the world are registered with Personal Notifier reflecting the demand for such a service. However, Harcourts
has revolutionised this with a new option.
The new improved Personal Notifier is now able to send the listing and open home details as a simple text message to any
text capable Telecom mobile phone.
Mr Wills said client feedback showed buyers were often frustrated at the rate property sells before they had a chance to
view it. This new tool ensured they received instant notification of property within their criteria as soon as it was
listed. He added that it also means for sellers, their properties were being emailed and now text messaged directly to
potential buyers.
Developed exclusively in conjunction with Telecom, the new service is available for a fee of 99cents for each new
listing text message and 50cents for each open home text message.
Mr Wills added, “This is an absolute first in New Zealand and exclusive to Harcourts. No-one else offers anything like
this technological edge and we’re also in negotiations with an Australian telecommunications provider with a plan to
launch this service to Harcourts Australia soon.”
Maps on Listings
Having recently developed a relationship with Wises Maps, many of Harcourts’ New Zealand website listings now also
feature a locality map. “This is yet another Harcourts ‘first’ in New Zealand, again adding value to the public’s
experience with our website,” Mr Wills said. Website visitors can now view the general location of the property they are
interested in simply by clicking on the map link. This service will also be introduced into Harcourts Australia in the
near future.
New Look Website
Having last updated the website ‘look’ in 2001 Harcourts has just relaunched www.harcourts.co.nz and
www.harcourts.com.au with a new look. Mr Wills described it as “clean, professional, easier to navigate and more in line
with our current overall marketing.”
Chinese Website
With the strengthening number of website visitor numbers from China, Harcourts has worked with a translation service to
now offer the website listings in simplified Chinese script. Mr Wills said that they were recording around 1,500 website
visitors from China each month using this service. The Chinese website is available to Chinese based browsers or any
computer running Windows XP with the Chinese language plugin, which was in line with modern Chinese Internet users.
Mr Wills said all these innovations were a “win-win” for property sellers and buyers, and also provided valuable
leading-edge tools for Harcourts consultants. He added that he was not aware of any other New Zealand real estate group
offering such comprehensive Internet services.
"The days of spending time in the car visiting house after house are gone. Increasing numbers of people are undertaking
a large proportion of their research via real estate websites and only visit a few favourites to make their decision.
And in the robust market that we are experiencing, it is imperative that we provide the public with the best tools
possible to ensure their real estate experience is productive and successful."
…ends