At the end of the financial year, while many people take a break and re-gather their energy for the rest of the year, we are very proud of the fact our members sold $40.76 billion in unconditional sales in 2018-19. What an incredible effort in often trying times.
In June alone, we traded $3.46 billion in property sales across our networks, with outstanding results in New Zealand, Indonesia and our commercial team too.
It feels like we are emerging from the two year easing in the cycle in many Australasian markets, particularly given the recent lift in auction activity, big crowd numbers at open homes and general feedback from our members.
The June housing market results show early signs that lower mortgage rates and improved sentiment are already having a flow-on effect for conditions in Sydney and Melbourne, while most other regions of Australia continue to show relatively soft housing market outcomes.
We are unsure if the recent spike in sales will form a base for the market given we are still trading on thin volume. But like all good recoveries, they always start with limited stock and then vendors begin to have the confidence again to list and sell their properties in solid numbers again.
Rate Cut, again!
No doubt the second consecutive rate cut in as many months shocked some people as the Reserve Bank tries to inject some life into the economy as it worries about the high unemployment rate. Along with the recent Federal Election result, APRA’s policy changes and improved auction activity, this decision gives more confidence to buyers to enter the market knowing key downside risks have been mitigated.
Loan Market
The thriving broker network had a strong June with $1.14 billion in applications, $860 million in approvals and $730 million in settled loans. For their full year - which has been disrupted by the Banking Royal Commission which threatened their livelihood -, they settled a whopping $8.5 billion in loans from $13.5 billion in applications and $9.8 billion approvals.
Auctions
Our vendors who had the courage to list a mid-winter auction campaign have been richly rewarded particularly in many parts of Sydney, Melbourne and south-east Queensland from the reports emerging of competitive bidding and big results over reserves. In the month of June, we conducted 1,298 auctions and some 48,542 people attended our auctions in total. Registered bidders was steady at 3.1 people per property. Melbourne agents cleared 62 per cent of their auction stock that month, while in Sydney 59 per cent cleared under the hammer. I urge you again to seek help or training from us at Corporate if you are not confident about converting private treaty sales to auction or booking auctions only. At the end of June, our Apartment Collective auction events - coordinated by Ben Burling in our Melbourne corporate team - cleared $6 million worth of stock across 12 properties from Auckland to Brisbane.
Commercial highlight
The commercial team has a strong end to the year with many big deals brokers in Special Projects and across Melbourne. Congratulations to Ray White’s Tony and Adam Grbcic of Broadbeach who also negotiated the $20 million sale of the retail asset Lakeview Retail Centre for developer Sunland Group. A local investor group bought the 3864sqm property in Mermaid Waters, beating strong competition.
New Business
St Ives
Building on the success of their Ray White Turramurra and Wahroonga offices, Greg Windel, David Walker and Matt Bolin have opened a third joint venture in St Ives. Welcome to James Levy and David Beveridge - two of the Upper North Shore’s leading agents - have since joined.
Mermaid Beach | Mermaid Waters
In a seamless transition, two of Ray White’s finest business owners have agreed to effectively swap offices and business names. With more than 21 years experience in real estate, Ray White Broadbeach | Broadbeach Waters owner Larry Malan is now the proud new owner of Ray White Mermaid Beach too. Gary Gannon has sold his Mermaid Beach sales business and has relocated his property management team to the Mermaid Waters location once owned by Larry Malan which he will continue to operate going forward.
Woollahra
It was great to see Clay Brodie step up to become a director in Woollahra, working alongside Randall Kemp on their office’s growth and performance.
Awards
Helen Yan of Ray White Balwyn was named as the top female agent in Australia for the fourth year in a row by trade media REB. The unstoppable Helen Yan has once again taken out the top place for her sales dominance in the REB Top 50 Women in Real Estate ranking for 2019.
And Penny Costa of Ray White Oakleigh was named 2019 REB Women in Real Estate Awards BDM of the Year – Property Management. When she started at Oakleigh some 23 years ago, they had 112 managements and they now have more than 2500, all organically grown and Penny knows every owner by their first name.
The Great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Following on the back of the Great Campaign airing on TV across SA, in the month of June we rolled our the campaign starring Australian actor Rhys Muldoon across the small screens in NSW and Victoria. This is quite a big moment for our group - the first time we’d run any TV ads nationally despite some ads running in Queensland along some 30 years ago.
Watch the TVC here and the behind the scenes TVC here, innovated in conjunction with creative agency Do.
Customer Satisfaction
We maintain our relentless pursuit for customer satisfaction and our network sent 8896 surveys in June. We received a response rate from 35% and our NPS score sits at a very high 81. For the whole year to June, we sent almost 100,000 surveys and received a response from 37% of them and our NPS finished 2018-19 at 79. A shoutout to Ray White Remuera who sent more surveys and received than any other office for June, likewise Ray White Toowoomba and Ray White Mooloolaba who received very high numbers of 10 out of 10s. Jake Battenally of Ray White Canberra also had a standout year for his high level of customer service in the Canberra community.
Thanks, I’m Dan White.
