Aussie website launch boost for NZ properties

Interest in New Zealand real estate is expected to boom amongst Australian and offshore real estate investors as realestate.com.au, Australia’s largest real estate website, launches New Zealand properties for sale on its site.

Friday, June 3rd 2005, 10:05AM

realestate.com.au is bridging the Tasman by enabling 1.6 million visitors to its website each month to quickly and easily search New Zealand properties.

A recent on-site survey showed that 30% of visitors to realestate.com.au were interested in investment properties and that one in four respondents wanted to search for New Zealand properties.

The company says this reflects recent investment trends where New Zealand is recognised as highly attractive for investment properties due to strong local market growth, lower entry prices, and favourable tax treatment.

New Zealand real estate agents and developers have long recognised the value of advertising to the Australian market and this explains the surge in New Zealand properties being advertised in Australian papers and on Australian radio.

Chief executive officer of realestate.com.au, Simon Baker, said: “The response from New Zealand real estate agents and property owners has already been fantastic. They are genuinely excited about the opportunity to advertise their properties to an additional 1.6 million property hunters on realestate.com.au. “We have already signed up more than 80 agents to advertise New Zealand properties for sale on the site. These agents will join the 6,233 Australian agents already using realestate.com.au. “During the last 12 months we have had many calls from New Zealand agents and developers wanting to advertise properties on the site. This, together with the strong demand from users of the site for greater choice in investment properties has led us to expand our service into the highly attractive New Zealand market.”

Leading New Zealand developer of inner city property, Kitchener Group of Companies, is one of the first to use the realestate.com.au service. Sales Manager of the Kitchener Group, Peter Holmes, said it as an easy and cost effective way to extend market reach. “realestate.com.au will enable us to take our product to another dimension by exposing it to a large Australian customer base," said Peter Holmes. “In property development, fifty per cent of our sales are generated from Australia, so advertising our properties on realestate.com.au is nothing but a positive for us. It also offers a great on-sale opportunity for New Zealanders as local properties can be exposed to a broader offshore market.” The campany says that realestate.com.au has recently attracted more international interest to the website than ever before, with 300,000 international visitors to the site each month. "This suggests that offshore interest and investment in property is becoming more commonplace and reflects current demands from Australian investors to seek New Zealand real estate."

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