By ANNE GIBSON
A question mark hangs over the future of the new lawyer-real estate network Real, following the sudden closure of five offices.
Branches in Taupo, Waihi, Pakuranga, Ponsonby and Eastridge at Orakei have all shut, Real coordinator Warwick Brown said yesterday.
Real, an acronym for "real estate agents, lawyers," opened last July and set out to challenge the traditional way of selling houses.
What happens to the remaining 23 offices, spread from Kerikeri to Dunedin, has yet to be decided, he said.
But even after cutting the number of Auckland offices from 11 to eight, Real still had too many offices in Auckland and more were sure to shut.
"It's become quite clear to the Auckland lawyers that there are just too many to sustain and they need to shrink and regrow," Mr Brown said.
The future of the entire network hangs in the balance, with the lawyers funding it reviewing their options.
"I can't say what happens next because most of the lawyer groups have made a preliminary agreement to continue, but they have to get local funds and they are still working on it. That's going on throughout the rest of the country basically."
However, offices in places such as Tauranga, Timaru, Whakatane, Cambridge, Kerikeri and Whangarei were keen to continue and waiting to formalise new arrangements, he said.
The closures were partly the result of Real's moves to "regionalise and franchise" the business, Mr Brown said. This followed a national shakeup late last year when he announced a scaling-back of the head office in Auckland.
"It was not working on a national level. It was too amorphous and there was not enough responsibility being put on [the regional offices]," Mr Brown said.
In September, Real appealed for about $2 million in funds from its members.
The chairman of Real Management, Martin Strong, died suddenly in November.
Mr Brown said late last year that Real had been less than successful, partly as a result of a lack of house sales when Real launched.
Lawyers' real estate firm shuts branches
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.