Taupo is where the first of the agency's offices will open. Photo / NZME
Taupo is where the first of the agency's offices will open. Photo / NZME
A large Sydney-headquartered real estate agency established 140 years ago plans to open in New Zealand, entering the market as prices continue to fall.
Long-established Kiwi agent Keith Niederer has been appointed NZ network manager for Australian-owned Raine & Horne, established in 1883.
He indicated big ambitions: “They’re lookingto purchase 15 to 18 to 20 offices in New Zealand. We could buy a network if we could get the right one.”
Angus Raine, agency executive chairman of the chain with more than 300 offices, announced the arrival.
”The launch follows extensive consultation with real estate principals across the country, revealing an overwhelming appetite to align with an alternative network.”
Raine said the brand started its international network in Malaysia in 1989 and plans to open four offices in the North Island “by Easter”, and expand to the South Island later in the year.
But Niederer, 65, said the offices will not open until the end of the month. The first will be in Taupo.
“We’ve got four offices starting: the people who own those offices are rebranding and it won’t be ‘til the end of April. These people have signed up with us with confidential agreements.”
Niederer, who has worked in real estate since 1987, starting in Tauranga at Eves and Harveys and then working at LJ Hooker for 16 years, said now was a great time to open.
Raine & Horne's Keith Niederer with Angus Raine in Auckland.
“There are a lot of people looking for opportunities - agents and other companies. We’re certainly not an agency with an office on every corner. Barfoot & Thompson is a great company but then you have a franchised model with other companies where there’s an office with three or four in one area, owned by separate people. In tough times, there’s a lot of frustration from agents,” Niederer said.
“People looking to sell now have a genuine reason for sale and a choice for a lot of companies. We’re another choice but we’ve been going 140 years in Australia and are very well established and financially very secure.”
The agency’s New Zealand website gives its address as 2 Princes St in Auckland’s CBD but Niederer said that was only the address of its solicitor.
QV today said New Zealand home values recorded their largest first-quarter fall in more than 15 years.
Westpac economists measured mortgage shock caused by rising interest rates and calculated that many Aucklanders will be paying $900 per fortnight more than they were at the lower rates and nationally, people will pay $530 a fortnight more.
in Auckland, where house prices tend to be higher, the increase in interest costs will be around $900 per fortnight.
But Angus Raine said today now was a good time for Raine & Horne to arrive.
“There is significant appetite for another major real estate brand in New Zealand, especially in this softer market where many, particularly independent businesses, are increasingly realising there is great value and safety in being a member of a major real estate group such as Raine & Horne.
“We are a global leader in Proptech - marketing, training and agency systems - and we pride ourselves on our reliable and market-leading support for our offices, so it stands to reason that we are taking an aggressive approach to our New Zealand expansion,” Raine said.
He indicated an aggressive expansion plan and played up cross-Tasman connections: “Given our affinity with New Zealand and the similarities in how our two countries transact real estate, we have been eyeing an expansion across the Tasman for some time as a natural next step in our evolution.”
