Change of leadership at Property Brokers Dannevirke

Outgoing branch manager Kerry Sutherland congratulates incoming branch manager Dave Frith at Dannevirke Property Brokers.

New Property Brokers Dannevirke branch manager Dave Frith is delighted to have taken over the reins from Kerry Sutherland with the market so buoyant.

He leads a team of 10, up from 3-4 a decade ago and by team he means a group of people.

Born in Dannevirke but raised in Linton, Dave worked in retail before training as a policeman and served eight years in Palmerston North before returning to Dannevirke 10 years ago, serving a further six years in the police – 14 years in the front line.

He left the police to help wife Leah set up her Funeral Service before joining Property Brokers working part-time in the rural sector as sales support for two years. He gained his National Certificate in Real Estate in 2019.

With a love of the outdoors, DIY and working with people, Dave enjoys the everyday challenge working in real estate brings.

He and outgoing manager Kerry, who is staying in marketing and retail at Property Brokers, are excited by the trends in real estate sales.

Dannevirke average sale prices have surged since 2018 from $162,000 to $265,000 in June 2020 with a further rise in July to $310,000 post-Covid. In 2015 it took 175 days to sell a house compared to just 14 days now. Not only that there are multiple offers for popular properties.

Dave and Kerry see this trend continuing with major infrastructure developments like the Te Ahu a Turanga Highway and other projects planned or under way.

For Kerry it has been an amazing journey starting at Property Brokers Real Estate in 1987 with Rick Ussher and Reon Stratford. Kerry has been manager for 25 years and has seen huge changes.

Most recently digital marketing has become huge but Kerry still believes newspaper marketing is great to attract passive buyers who are not really thinking of buying but see something that interests them.

In rural areas for a long time farm amalgamations were a large part of business but Kerry says there has been a huge increase in subdivisions for lifestyle blocks in recent years and carbon farming has become a whole new phenomenon in farm sales.

Retail sales have fluctuated over the years but in just the last year the growth of High St businesses has mushroomed. Dave Frith said when he came back 10 years ago there were many empty shops as branches of major companies were closed. Now there is hardly a vacant property, particularly since lockdown.

Kerry says there have been low times when property valuations actually declined but the huge increase in agencies and agents up from 7000 to 15,000 in 15 years speaks volumes for the present state of the industry.

Dave says he is very pleased to see owners at last getting value out of selling their properties.