Congratulations Team Harcourts!

A huge highlight of Conference for me every year is, without a doubt, the black tie National Awards dinner in both Australia and New Zealand. After working hard during the year, it provides the opportunity for us all to celebrate our successes and those of our team.

This year, though, there was even more reason to celebrate our individual and team  achievements. The world economy has, over the last year, gone through enormous change and uncertainty. It has affected every part of the world and indeed, every industry in a different way. The real estate market has been enormously challenging, with significant falls in overall volume, up to 60% in some areas.

I am incredibly proud of the entire Harcourts team for their courage, hard work and faith in a time of change and challenge.  The true professionals shine in times like these, and that was certainly the case for Team Harcourts. Our top consultants, Alison Aitken in New Zealand and Jim Ryan in Australia are simply inspirational. The many other consultants, business owners and managers, auctioneers, property managers and office administrators that we recognised, are all outstanding individuals – extraordinary people we should all be incredibly proud of.

We were also delighted to welcome two new inductees to the Harcourts Hall of Fame. Brian King from Harcourts Hamilton City, in New Zealand was the first for 2009, and then in Australia, we welcomed Lance Walsh from Harcourts Ultimate Realty in Redcliffe. Both  are outstanding members of Team Harcourts that have contributed enormously to the overall success and development of the Group over many years.

My personal congratulations to everyone we recognised – to achieve in this organisation is outstanding, over this past year, truly extraordinary!