Harcourts Venture Sth Australian Real Estate Group

Harcourts Announces Joint Venture With Leading South Australian Real Estate Group

New Zealand’s largest real estate group, Harcourts International Ltd announced this morning that it has just signed a joint venture agreement with South Australia’s leading independent real estate group, Brock Real Estate. Brock Real Estate was founded 21 years ago by real estate industry leader Michael Brock and is South Australia’s largest independently owned real estate company.

The alliance comes hot on the heels of the launch of Harcourts’ entry into Western Australia just three weeks ago with the purchase of Roy Weston Real Estate, a privately owned group of 61 franchised offices in Western Australia, Northern Territory and Indonesia.

Harcourts has over 160 offices in New Zealand and first expanded into Australia in 1997 where it now has over 140 offices throughout Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and Northern Territory. Harcourts also has an office in Fiji and 10 in Indonesia. Significantly, Harcourts is also the only major Australasian real estate company to have expanded from New Zealand into Australia.

Harcourts International Ltd Managing Director, Mike Green said, “As the acknowledged market leader in New Zealand real estate and the fastest growing group in Australia, we are managing an average of over $38 million worth of property sales every day. We achieved a combined record-breaking $13.5 billion in sales in the 12 months to the end of January 2004 compared with $8 billion in sales the previous 12 months.”

Mr Green confirmed that the strategy to move into every State in Australia included a focus on only working with similarly leading organisations, which Brock Real Estate was in South Australia.

The Brock Harcourts joint venture will take effect from mid-April 2004. The Brock Group’s five residential offices will become founding franchises of the Brock Harcourts company with an aggressive drive into new markets aiming to see the network grow initially by eight to ten offices a year. Brock Urban Projects and Brock Commercial will operate independently of the franchise network.

“South Australia is a diverse and vibrant market and this expansion is another step towards achieving our ultimate aim of being the number one real estate group in Australasia,” said Mr Green. “Brock Real Estate is now, and has been for many years the premier real estate organisation in South Australia. We are proud to be partners with such an outstanding team of people.”

Brock Real Estate’s Chairman, Claude Long, said the Brock Harcourts alliance would provide significant benefits to property owners in South Australia with the combined experience and systems of the two groups bringing a new level of service to the local industry.

“Both organisations share a business commitment to exceptional personal client services making this a very compatible match,” he said. “We also share very strong brands and a reputation for excellence in our respective markets.”

Brock founder and Managing Director Michael Brock, said Harcourts was at the forefront of leading-edge technology within the real estate industry, which was a key factor in establishing the joint venture.

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