Bayleys franchises join up

Wanganui will become a major power broker in the real estate industry with the merger of three key players in the Lower North Island.

The new entity - Coast To Coast Ltd - was created with the merger of Bayleys Wanganui and Manawatu, Bayleys Hawkes Bay and Bayleys Wairarapa franchises.

The offices are owned respectively by Pete Stratton and Karl Cameron in Manawatu, Wanganui and Ruapehu, Gary Brooks, Glyn Rees-Jones and Cathedral Lane Ltd in Hawkes Bay and Mark Morison in Wairarapa.

Each franchise will take up a shareholding in the new Coast to Coast company. The new entity comes into existence on April 1.

Mr Stratton said the combined trio of franchises would create a powerful belt of representation for vendors in the region stretching from Hawkes Bay across to Wanganui to south to Wairarapa.

"The dynamics of real estate marketing have changed considerably in the past decade. Previously, many real estate companies confined their marketing to the immediate vicinity in which the property for sale was located. However, as the rural sector has become more mobile in relocating into and out of regional areas throughout New Zealand, the requirement on real estate agencies now is to market properties nationally and internationally," Mr Stratton said.

"We have also taken the view that servicing the wider real estate markets - rural, residential, lifestyle, commercial and industrial - is also now far broader than just concentrating on one niche segment. For example, there are farm owners with investment properties, residential property owners who have commercial investment properties, and of course industrial unit owners who have their own domestic residences.

"With the owners of each of the offices retaining an active interest in the new company, customers have the benefit of continuing existing relationships. Additionally, all of the owners are involved in front-line transactions - that is selling properties - so they have an intricate and immediate feel for their markets," Mr Stratton said.

With 60 offices nationwide and the most sophisticated marketing tools in New Zealand real estate, Bayleys dominates market shares across all the rural, commercial, industrial, and high-end residential property sectors.

Bayleys Realty Group executive director David Poole said that the existing Bayleys offices in Hawkes Bay, Wairarapa, and Manawatu/Wanganui would retain their existing premises and more than 100 sales personnel.

"Bringing the ownership together through this new agency will allow Coast to Coast Ltd to work more efficiently and effectively with the likes of regional and district councils or corporate clients with multiple locations and sites.

"It is a business model which has already proven successful for the Bayleys brand in Northland, the Bay of Plenty and the Waikato/King Country, Canterbury and Central Otago/Southland.

"We will be bringing on board many of the existing management practices which those regional franchises have previously initiated and consequently rolled out to deliver greater levels of customer service," Mr Poole said.