New joint venture promises shake-up

Christopher Nicholl Harcourts is promising to shake up the New Zealand commercial property market with the announcement of a new joint venture with NAI Global, one of the world's largest commercial real estate service providers.

A statement from Harcourt's New Zealand office says the joint venture between Harcourts and NAI Global, which manages a network of 5000 professionals and 325 offices in 55 countries, will see "NAI Harcourts take its first steps in New Zealand and Australia later this year.

"NAI Harcourts will introduce a strong global platform of commercial real estate brokerage services to support corporate end users, investors and financial institutions locally and around the world."

The venture will be headed by Christopher Nicholl, a commercial real estate industry veteran, who has been appointed chief executive officer of NAI Harcourts.

Nicholl comes to NAI Harcourts with more than 20 years' experience in the commercial property industry including a previous stint as head of Colliers Australia and Colliers Asia Pacific.

Before joining NAI Harcourts Nicholl was based in Singapore as international director and regional managing director, Project and Development Services, Asia Pacific for Jones Lang LaSalle.

Harcourts international managing director Mike Green says expanding Harcourts' presence in the commercial sector is a significant step for the franchise group, which has more than 625 offices around the world.

"Over the past few years the commercial market has grown to exceed billions in revenue, yet at the same time we have seen very few new entrants, which offers NAI Harcourts a tremendous opportunity," Green said.

President and chief executive officer of NAI Global Jeffrey Finn said NAI Global had been looking for ways to grow a presence in New Zealand and Australia and Harcourts was "the perfect partner" for them to do so. "NAI Harcourts will give us a strong presence and powerful business generation engine in this important part of the world connecting businesses and investors from around the globe."