Harcourts NZ CEO sees Feb, March sales "significantly ahead" of Dec, Jan

One of New Zealand's top 5 real estate agency groups, Harcourts New Zealand, has signalled an improvement in sales volumes in February after surprisingly low sales figures for the industry in January. Harcourts CEO Bryan Thomson said early February figures suggested an encouraging level of activity this month and in March. "So we expect to see February and March being significantly ahead of December and January. Initial February sales figures are certainly encouraging," Thomson said. There is also a larger pool of buyers coming through, he said. Industry-wide the volume of sales for residential and rural properties slumped last month. However, Harcourts said it had drops in sales to January 2009, in two of its five regions and an increase in three (by 3% to 6%). "Harcourts also had a 13% increase in written sales in its Central region and a 7% increase in its Wellington region, which encompasses Wellington, the Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, the Kapiti Coast, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu, Wanganui and parts of the Central Plateau and East Coast districts." Speculation about the impact of the tax reform uncertainty might be evident in February figures, Thomson said. "There has been a lot of speculation about the impact of tax reform uncertainty and other things in December/January and there is no doubt the final February figures are eagerly awaited to see if any ongoing trends have emerged."