Robertson fell in love with NZ when he visited here in the 1970’s and he has since put a great deal into the local community and was recently made an honorary knight.

Matakauri Lodge is the latest spectacular addition to the Robertson portfolio and it featured on Campbell Live on Friday 27th of August. Seven minutes from Queenstown and spectacularly situated on Lake Wakatipu, Matakauri Lodge offers eleven luxurious suites and villas, each with private terraces looking out to a dramatic Queenstown lakeside, with mountain views.

For the full rundown take a look at the website at matakauri.com - you’ll be impressed with this incredible property.

We had a great time one morning recently at the Gypsy Tea Rooms just along the road from our new office/showroom at 483 Richmond Rd, Grey Lynn in the West Lynn shopping strip.

The morning started out with a haircut at Maloneys Barber Shop and then we headed across to the Gypsy to meet stylist Julie Roulston and fashion photographer Amanda Bransgrove after which we changed into some fabulous designer clothing from World, Strangely Normal, Marvel, Black Box. Unfortunately we had to hand the clothing back at the end of the shoot!

Pretty tough work this modelling but Derek says he would do it again if the money was right!

You can view a high quality online version of the Ponsonby News magazine here where we feature on pages 36 and 37 and also a radio interview with the Editor of the Ponsonby News here.

In case you were wondering we don’t usually wear $900 shoes in our day to day real estate work!

It’s an incredibly interesting read and is a walk down memory lane that will be treasured by many.

Recording and collecting the local stories was a seven month project, which began in July 2008 and finished in February 2009. People over age 55 who were familiar with Point Chevalier or lived in the area in the 1930’s , 40’s, and 50’s were asked to write down recollections of their lives such as school days, family life, shops, churches, social life they associated with the time.

On the real estate front the book  includes a copy of a property advertisment from 1958  for a property at 67 Walker Rd which reads:

LOVELY PT CHEV, VIEWS from upper harbour across motorway to Waitakeres. Charming bunglaow in sparkling order only 16 years old, 3 bdrms, pleasant lounge, garage, pretty 1/5th acre section. Rates 26 Pounds. Wonderful value at 3,500 Pounds. Ph 32 600.

We have two copies that we are giving away so if you are a Pt Chevalier resident and would like to go in the prize draw send an email with “Memories” in the subject line to rachael@sellrealty.co.nz and include your name address and phone number.

You will be unlikely to see men dressed in suits on Pt Chevalier beach in 2010!

The huge response prompted some amazed looks from buyers who couldn’t believe the interest in the property, several asking questions along the lines of “what makes this property so popular?” and “I thought the market was quiet?”.

Lawrence commented “we should open a shoe store” to which we all had a great laugh. It was difficult to get a park within 400 metres!

So what created this huge level of activity?

First of all the home is absolutely fantastic, with 4 bedrooms, ensuite, 2 living areas, a studio and a full northwest facing 622m2 site – it is the kind of home a huge number of buyers are seeking.

Secondly the marketing campaign comprised:

1)Email to buyer database containing over 1,000 registered buyers.
2)Feature status on realestate.co.Nz open2view.co.nz and trademe.co.nz
3)Full colour 1/4 page advert in the NZ Herald.
4)Full colour sign and brochures
5)Mail drop to local area
6)Adverts in the school newsletter and the community website
7)Feature window displays in our Pt Chev and Grey Lynn office windows.
8)Extensive direct contact by phone with buyers we thought would be keen.

We can create a similar response for your property. There will be plenty of cashed up buyers who will miss out on 30 Te Ra Rd and we will undoubtedly need several more similar homes in order to satisfy the strong buyer demand! Call Lawrence or Derek if you are thinking of selling on 0272279294 or 0275337357.

Susie quoted me as saying “The use of signs was an “easy way to get your name out there” in what was a tough real estate market. It’s only about marketing for the companies themselves. It’s nothing to do with getting the house sold,” he said.

This is out of context as we were at that point talking about the use of open home direction arrows and open home flags. A for sale sign outside a property and particularly one that features photos of the home is of course always a valuable component of marketing and always will be.

I’ve been in real estate a very long time – since 1983 and open homes did not become a major feature of real estate marketing until the mid 1990’s.  Homes still sold prior to that without direction arrows, flags and open homes and it is predominantly the branding/marketing opportunity for the real estate company that is the reason for use of these methods today.

Yes we use them ourselves and have to in order to maintain a level playing field however a blanket ban of direction arrows and open home flags would make no difference to whether or not a house would sell or to the number of people that come through the house. The open home time is usually on the for sale sign and used in all other marketing so there is no real purpose to the use of an open home flag other than branding/marketing. Some might say it let’s the buyers know you are inside but if you have an advertised open home time surely they would expect you to be on site.

The council have introduced the new bylaws as real estate signage got out of control, with bigger and bigger signs being used, open home arrows everywhere, sandwich boards being used on intersections as open home direction pointers, often blocking vision at those intersections, open home flags put on the roadside of vehicles, sold signs left up for weeks on end etc, etc.

There is no excuse for salespeople to claim they are not aware of the new bylaws – an email was sent to real estate offices by the Real Estate Institute, the Council, the bylaws appeared in the latest Real Estate journal and the Auckland City Council “City Scene” also contained the bylaws and that publication is home delivered to all households.

in case you missed them here is a link to the bylaws.

I suggested that Susie interview various other people for an alternate view point but there is not much evidence of this in the article so perhaps if you have any comments to make please feel free to post them here.

The companies revenue has been in eight figures for several years and growing at a fast rate.

Derek Handley says the completion of the deal goes to show that Kiwi entrepreneurs have what it takes to compete on the world stage. “Globally, Kiwi companies are at the cutting edge of the use of new technology and by having the courage to take our ideas and capabilities off shore, we are able to become a significant powerhouse within some of the world’s leading corporations,” he says.

Read more about the deal and watch a video interview with Derek Handley here and check out their website at thehyperfactory.com

So good on you guys for building yet another global brand from NZ and achieving such a great outcome.

Will see if I can post a link to the video so check back later.

Only yesterday the Finance Minister Bill English said “Home buyers were starting to realise interest rates were on the way up. I suspect that’s going to keep the housing market damp for some time yet.” So who is right?

With regard to the newspapers these huge rate cuts should be headline news but have hardly been given a mention!

We now have the situation where floating interest rates are on the increase and fixed rates are on the decrease. The banks appear to be positioning themselves for the surge of people who are expected to swap from floating rates to fixed rates and as the figures below show there are plenty of customers to fight over.

Here is the composition of fixed vs floating mortgages in New Zealand comparing June 2008 with April 2010:

June 2008  349,253   Floating vs April 2010 617,519 Floating
April  2008 976,077  Fixed   vs    April 2010 762,623 Fixed

Those 617,000 floating in April were doing so at an average rate of 5.8% and this has since increased to around 6%

Reserve Bank expect OCR to hit 5.75% to 6% over next 18 months to two years.

As floating rates increase a large proportion of those floating will fix – lets say 250,000 of them so that’s a lot of customers who will be looking at which bank offers the best rate as they look for the security of a fixed rate rather than staying on a risky floating rate that could hit 8% to 8.5% within the next 18 months if you are to believe Mr Bollard who says “The bank forecasts the 90-day bill rate will rise to around 6.1 per cent by the end of 2012 from around 2.9 per cent now.” (Banks usually have a 2% margin on top of the 90 day bill rate)

Many sellers will now take their homes off the market and refinance at the lower rates and keep their properties – there has been no sign of a surge of listings since the Budget and there is not likely to be now that these low fixed rates have been announced.

There were 17 stunning designs on display and the one pictured below was the winner. It was designed by a team from Virginia Tech in the USA. You can view a full selection of photos here - it’s worth a look!

The IKAROS House out of Germany generates more solar power than is needed to run the home and is designed to accommodate four persons. Super tight insulation provided by vacuum insulation panels, energy efficient design and efficient mechanical systems ensures that the home uses very little energy — in fact excess energy from the home’s systems is used for heating during the cooler months. Heating is the least of their worries in Madrid right now though, and natural ventilation is optimized to keep the house cool, and excess heat from the cooling system (a heat pump) is used to make hot water. Estimated cost 275,000 Euro. Photo below and a slideshow here.

Finland’s entry was the Luukku house and it won first place in the architecture portion of the competition. As you would expect it involves extensive use of wood and believe it or not quadruple glazing! Must be cold in Finland. More pictures online here.

Read more about the design competition where over 1,000 students took part with the aim of designing, building and operating solar powered homes that are cost effective, energy efficient and attractive.

Late in May Auckland City released new sign bylaws and despite these being published in the Auckland City Scene, the NZ Herald and in the REINZ real estate journal some companies appear to be unaware of  the new rules.  A full month after the new rules came into effect few seem to be adhering to them.

The new rules state “Where any property in a residential zone in the Isthmus is being sold, rented or leased by one or more real estate company or person, only one real estate sign per property may be displayed”

Also noticed over the last few weekends salespeople still attaching open home flag poles to their cars when the bylaw states “the display of a real estate banner flag on any vehicle parked on a public road during “open home” period or at an auction is illegal under this bylaw.”

There is a simple resolution to the open home flag issue and I will post that separately.