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Our Group rounded out the 2018 year with $3.24B in unconditional sales in the month of December across Australasia, which was 15 per cent lower than 2017 but on par with 2016. There’s no doubt 2018 will be remembered as a year of challenges but there was plenty to smile about too.
Some of our offices achieved PBs in December with special mention to South Brisbane, Woodside in Adelaide and Campsie in NSW who almost doubled their previous PB which is terrific.
Our New Zealand network had a strong month with $806M, with our chief Carey Smith noting the low-interest rate environment together with the increasingly stronger economy was giving buyers the confidence to transact.
Our commercial division reported $305M which stems from some big transactions - many of which we are unable to report due to confidentiality clauses. And well done to Commercial (Ferntree Gully) for their latest PB.
So regardless of what you read in the newspapers, the continuation of low interest rates without the suggestion of any dramatic increase, has provided a platform for people to enter or to continue to invest in the property market aggressively. We are all just a little bit fed up with reading about the property market collapsing. The fact is the sky isn’t falling in, far from it! Prices are on par with 2016, which commentators at the time called a bull market. So unless you have 100 per cent market share in your market, then the adjustment is all relative. Our job is to carry energy and create competition in any climate.
Our streamlined auction data collection continues to offer up invaluable insights for us all. We are the biggest auction house in Australasia and we are seeing massive crowd sizes and attendance at our auctions and this is always a sign of people who want to get a feel on what is happening in a real time market on a direct basis rather than relying on any media reports. Our top auction for the month of December was a rare block of flats at 21 Baden St, Coogee which Justin Bell sold for $5.54M in front of 50 people with 10 registered bidders all in the hunt. Congratulations.
In late December, the AFR newspaper reported that one of our members, Malek Younan, was in fact the top agent in Australia. The inaugural list of Australia’s Top 100 Residential Real Estate Agents in 2018 was released by SQM Research, with found that Malek Younan of Ray White Gladstone Park in Melbourne top of the list out of 53,650 residential property real estate agents. Ray White dominated this list with 12 agents in the Top 100, including leading agents Ercan Erscan (#5) and Shaun Stoker (#7), both directors at Ray White Erskineville | Alexandria and Surry Hills in Sydney. The ranking of 53,650 residential property real estate agents includes all agents who had their name published on a property sales advertisement in 2018. The final ranking was based on an even weighting of five different measurements of agent performance including agent’s listing market share, number of sales, sales conversion rates, total dollar value sold and days on market.
Our rural network sold $145M in December but as a whole the rural market was one of the shining lights of hope in 2018. Ray White Rural’s year has been one of facilitating standout sales across the country including Guyra’s Tenterden Station which sold under the hammer for $17 million at auction in October, and the Queensland Government’s offloading of 14 properties which grossed just under $30 million. As we continue our relentless pursuit of customer satisfaction, we sent more than 7000 surveys to our buyers and sellers and our NPS score as a group sits at 77.
While overall lending was somewhat soft in December, Loan Market achieved a significant milestone in exceeding the $1 billion mark for loan book of its signature Loan Market Go product. Loan Market Go continues to be a popular solution for our brokers and their customers and equated to nine per cent of the group’s total lending in December. Overall results for December saw $914M in applications, $764M in approvals and $661M in settlements.
Thanks, I’m Brian White.
