White Paper - January

After a record-breaking 2016 in so many of our markets, we keenly anticipated our January figures to see if our momentum would continue into 2017. So our result of $2.3 billion was well received, nicely up on our January 2016 result.

Australian markets saw consistent results when compared to January 2016, with the exception of Victoria, which saw a rise of 10 per cent in traded sales year on year.

New Zealand was the other standout residential market, up 6 per cent on January 2016 result.

A fantastic start to the year in Queensland with our Gold Coast businesses collectively selling $72 million worth of property at auction in the last week of January. This of course, includes the Ray White Surfers Paradise Group’s annual auction spectacular, The Event, which saw more than $40 million sold under the hammer in front of an audience of 2,000 bidders and property market observers.

A crowd of more than 2,000 gathered at The Event 2017[/caption]

Our Commercial and Projects operations had a particularly strong month for this time of year, with a final result of $172 million, which is considerably higher than January 2016. Some notable transactions included the $18m sale of the Horizon Shopping Centre at Wellington Point, Brisbane by Nathan Moore from Commercial Bayside.

The iconic Clovelly Hotel sells through Andrew Jolliffe of Ray White Hotels[/caption]

We look forward to including insights into the property management / tenancy market in our 2017 White Papers. The Gold Coast rental market is outperforming the rest of Australia in anticipation of the Commonwealth Games with a sub 1 per cent vacancy rate. The Melbourne market has turned around its higher vacancy rates, reducing it to 1 per cent. Latest population growth figures for Victoria show the state has outperformed the rest of the country in the last quarter, with an immigration influx absorbing the increase in supply of new apartments in Southbank and Docklands.

Our partners at Loan Market achieved strong results with settlements just shy of $600 million and lodgements at $715 million, these results are consistent with the same time last year.

Our latest customer data continues to give us confidence. We saw another 1,435 clients rate us a nine or 10 out of 10. So wonderful to see our advocate group grow, bringing our overall Net Promoter Score to positive 78.

What’s new at Ray White

Kicking off the year, our family story was - for the first time - told publicly. An exclusive interview with The Australian resulted in three major national news stories that explored our family’s history and our commitment to never taking our company public. So relevant were the themes explored, we secured a front page position.

Our family story told for the first time[/caption]

In our commitment to providing our members with the greatest technology and systems, we’re excited to be rolling out new office websites across the group from March. For a sneak peek into the new website design, you can visit the Ray White Wilston site.

We are extremely pleased to welcome Jason Andrew to the Ray White corporate team, who is assuming the position of CEO - Sydney. Jason is a respected auctioneer and real estate trainer and brings his extensive experience to our business. The group also welcomes Andrew Crauford, as general manager of the Sydney metro market. These two newly created roles, are a commitment to providing deeper leadership to our network of members in these incredibly competitive and important markets.

We welcome Jason Andrew to the Ray White family.[/caption]

As always, we welcome our new businesses to the Group. One of the most significant additions to our business is the transition of the Leaders Real Estate Group to Ray White across the Lower North Island of New Zealand. We are currently in the later stages of the rebrand and will welcome 15 main offices and 7 branches in total 280 salespeople to the Ray White family. A huge change in the country’s real estate landscape that will further strengthen our presence and results in New Zealand.

The Leaders Real Estate group rebrand to Ray White is almost complete.[/caption]

In Australia, we had new businesses open in Ringwood in Victoria, Tumut, Pennant Hills, Campsie and a Rural business in Casino in NSW, as well as Manly and Bellmere in Queensland - both of which are existing Ray White business owners expanding their operations. In Western Australia, we welcome back the team at Ray White Albany.

The new Ray White office in Tumut.[/caption]

So wonderful to see so many of our members celebrate Chinese New Year with their local communities. There were many impressive celebrations, including the Ray White City Apartments team in Auckland who hosted a live performance of Lion Dancers at their office in honour of the occasion, and the incredible annual client party held by Sam Guo, Julia Kuo and Larry Malan from Ray White Broadbeach.

Sam Guo and Julia Kuo celebrate Chinese New Year[/caption]

Ray White City Apartments celebrate Chinese New Year[/caption]