Real estate agents: this is how we roll

NZ Herald

5:30 AM Wednesday Feb 8, 2012

Michelle Kennedy says the Segway attracts attention and is good for marketing. Photo / Greg Bowker

Agents at an inner-city real estate agency are being asked to ditch their flash cars for a two-wheel personal transport machine to help them get around the Auckland CBD.

James Law Realty, which specialises in apartment sales and commercial leasing, is issuing its agents with Segways to help them get around the inner-city "traffic nightmare".

Principal agent James Law said the electric human transport machines would help agents get to their clients faster, and remove their worries about parking infringements if meetings lasted longer than expected.

"The CBD traffic is a nightmare and finding a parking in the inner city is an even bigger nightmare," said Mr Law.

"With the Segways, our agents can go straight to their appointments, and even taking their machines in the lifts with them."

Two Segways have been made available for agents to use this week, but plans are for the agency to have a pool of at least six personal transporters for its 14 agents.

"With the Auckland Council plans of having more footpaths and making driving more difficult, it makes business sense that we find an alternative means to get around," Mr Law said.

"We decided on Segways because they are environmentally friendly, and can be used on all terrains, from roads to sidewalks."

The Auckland draft masterplan revealed city planners wanting to reduce the 34,385 vehicles that come into the inner city each weekday morning by 500 over the next 30 years.

Plans to do that include malling parts of Queen St and having more walking paths and "shared spaces" similar to Elliot St.

Segways are manufactured by Segway Inc in Bedford, New Hampshire, and cost about $14,000 each.

Agent Michael Chen, 28, who used the personal scooter this week, says it has halved his response time.

"It's fantastic that you don't have to get stuck in traffic or look for parking, or be running to appointments," he said.

Another agent, Michelle Kennedy, is also thrilled at the prospect of getting around on a Segway because of the attention it draws.

"These Segways just attract attention. It's good for marketing and it's really a good thing when you're in the business of real estate," Ms Kennedy said.

Some local tour operators are also using these personal robotic transporters for sightseeing tours.

A United States study in 2010 found Segway scooters responsible for increasing the number of accidents.

The company's original owner, Jimi Heselden, died when he rode off a cliff on one of his machines.

Last December, a man was awarded US$10 million by the Bridgeport Superior Court after he suffered brain injury from an accident at a company demonstration of the two-wheeled vehicle in New Haven, Connecticut.

Segways are considered to be motor vehicles in Britain and cannot be driven on pavements.

SEGWAY DANGER

Sep 2010: Multimillionaire owner of Segway Jimi Heselden died while riding a Segway that plunged off a cliff.

Dec 2011: John Ezzo from Norwalk was awarded US$10m after a Segway accident left him with brain damage.

Dec 2011: Australian cricket commentator Ian Healy fell off a Segway scooter on the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

June 2003: United States President George W. Bush fell off a Segway at a high-powered meeting.

- NZ Herald

Read more by Lincoln Tan Email Lincoln Tan

Car blimey - free Merc offered with apartment

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Tuesday, 18 October 2016

The New Zealand Herald

The Chelsea Bay Residences apartment block in Birkenhead on Auckland's North Shore is expected to be completed by early 2018. Photo / Supplied

By Lincoln Tan

A realtor is offering a free Mercedes with purchase of apartments on Auckland's North Shore.

James Law Realty, which is marketing Chelsea Bay Residences in Birkenhead, is including a Mercedes-Benz A-Class A180 - valued at around $51,000 on the road - to buyers of its "premium" apartments.

The apartment owners will be presented with the car upon settlement of their property, principal agent James Law said.

They will be able to choose the colour of their car or upgrade to a better model Mercedes by paying the difference.

Premium residences at the 56-apartment development on Rawene Rd are priced upwards of $900,000.

Massey University Chinese marketing specialist Henry Chung said the promotion was an "innovative and bold move" by the agency, where seven out of 10 of its clients are Asian, mainly Chinese.

"Mercedes is traditionally seen as the most luxurious car brand among the Chinese, and this brand is associated with prestige," Chung said.

"The returns on selling property is so high, the agency will have no problems in recovering the cost of the Mercedes that's being offered as a sales promotion tool."

Chung said apartments are often not the property of choice for most Chinese and extra incentives were needed to motivate them to buy.

"The majority of Chinese buyers prefer to buy stand-alone houses with land if they can," Chung said.

"A lot of people are coming to New Zealand because they would like to change their living environment, and that's not apartment-style."

James Law said the promotion was being offered in collaboration with Mercedes Benz North Shore.

He denied the promotion was aimed at enticing the Chinese.

"It's about bringing together two products that are associated with luxury and prestige together," he said.

"This is also how we can differentiate ourselves from the competition."

The agency will start advertising the free car with apartment purchase offer within the next week.

Chelsea Bay Residences is a freehold development designed by Auckland architects, Leuschke Group.

All units consist of two bedrooms, a private balcony and range in size from 88sq m.

Construction commenced in June and is expected to be completed by early 2018.

Law acknowledged that immigration rule changes will hurt the residential apartment market.

"Many apartment buyers are parents of international students with hopes of moving to New Zealand through sponsorship of their children," he said.

"The changes in immigration rules will now give them no more reason to buy."

Immigration changes made last week included temporarily closing the parent category to new applications and reducing the number of places for family members of migrants from 5500 a year to 2000 a year.

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Migrants saving up to $300K on Auckland housing at Hobsonville

New Zealand Herald

10:48 AM Monday Jun 20, 2016

Recent migrants from China are looking to save themselves a fortune by picking up raw land at Hobsonville. Photo / File

Want to save up to $300,000 on a new Auckland property?

Recent migrants from China are looking to save themselves a fortune by picking up raw land at Hobsonville.

Those migrants have snapped up nearly 300 new land parcels since early last year and the agency selling all those sites says there's one extremely good reason why it's going on.

Money.

James Law, of James Law Realty, said his firm had sold the sections on the city's northwestern fringes mainly to people who had recently arrived here from China and the move was being driven by sheer economics.

"They're saving about $200,000 to $300,000," Law explained of each completed house-and-land package at Hobsonville, compared to new house stock elsewhere in Auckland.

Law said his agency had sold the sections since early last year. Sections sold for about $350,000 and about $650,000.

"It's cheaper for them to buy and then build rather than buy an existing house," Law said of the buyers, 97 per cent of whom are recent Chinese migrants.

The buyers migrated here usually in the last four to five years and all were either residents or citizens of New Zealand, Law emphasised.

"No sections have been sold to people who don't live in New Zealand. Every buyer, we ask them for their passport to check they are residents. A lot of them know each other," Law said.

His firm had used WeChat as its primary marketing tool and Law said this was a mechanism which was particularly popular with Chinese people who trusted it.

Last July, about 50 Chinese buyers snapped up 23 sections within minutes of a big release, following a post by the agency on the messaging application.

Law said some buyers were purchasing to develop houses and to sell the house and land package because they had networks in the building sector.

Others were buying to rent out their houses while others would live in the new houses, Law said.

Sections were sometimes only about 300sq m but houses of about 220sq m were built there, he explained.

The Chinese migrants were spending around $400,000 on the houses they built on the new sites, he said, and the whole package was costing them sometimes up to $1 million.

"We've also sold another about 100 sections around Kumeu and Massey," Law added.

The land is Clarke Rd and Scott Rd at Hobsonville in an area known as Scott Point, which is beside Hobsonville Point.

- An earlier version of this story referenced the land being purchased at Hobsonville Point.

- NZ Herald

Chinese locals snap up 23 sections within minutes

New Zealand Herald 

5:00 AM Friday Jul 17, 2015

About 50 Chinese buyers packed a real estate agency office in Epsom, and snapped up 23 sections within minutes of release yesterday.

James Law, principal agent at James Law Realty, said more than 100 people, all ethnic Chinese, registered interest with the agency to purchase sections in a Hobsonville subdivision.

Mr Law said each of his agents were assigned two sections, and the decision on who got them was made on a "first response" basis.

"All potential buyers were notified, but it was the Chinese who made their decisions the fastest," he said.

All the buyers were required to present their passports on signing the sale and purchase agreement.

Mr Law said all were either New Zealand citizens or permanent residents.

The Labour Party last week released leaked real estate figures showing about 40 per cent of homes sold at auction in Auckland between February and April went to people with Chinese surnames.

The party indicated the data suggested foreign-based Chinese investors were aggressively targeting Auckland's housing market because people of Chinese ethnicity made up just 9 per cent of the city's population.

"If we went by Labour's logic, then our data would suggest that the Chinese were snapping up 100 per cent of our land," Mr Law said.

Mr Law said buyers were required to show proof of residency because non-residents have to pay a higher deposit.

Mr Law said just one of the 150 sections sold in the subdivision so far went to a foreigner - a Chinese national waiting for his permanent residence visa.

Five purchasers declined to be interviewed when approached by the Herald, and one said Labour's claims and recent media reports had "turned Chinese into crooks".

'You like Chinese buyers when you're selling your house'

NZ Herald

By Lincoln Tan, Anne Gibson

5:00 AM Tuesday Jul 14, 2015

The editor of an Auckland Chinese newspaper has labelled Labour's claims Chinese buyers are responsible for the spike in real estate prices "racist".

The accusation emerged yesterday amid fallout over the release of leaked real estate sales figures suggesting foreign-based Chinese investors were aggressively targeting Auckland's housing market.

Chinese daily Mandarin Pages ran a front-page editorial accusing Labour of having "a Winston Peters" and saying there were 99 other reasons for the city's high property prices.

Editor David Soh said: "Labour has every right, as the main opposition party, to question the Government's housing policy. But to single out a particular ethnicity or nationality is quite irresponsible and racist."

The editorial, penned by Chinese journalist Kevin Yeung, said reasons for record high property prices included a supply shortage, high material costs and migration.

Mortgage rates were also at near-record lows, and Auckland was a preferred migration destination, not just for overseas-born migrants but also New Zealanders.

Mr Soh said while local buyers did not like bidding against the Chinese, sellers loved having them at their auctions because of the perception they would drive up prices.

Labour released figures on Saturday showing nearly 40 per cent of homes sold at auction in Auckland between February and April went to people with Chinese surnames, despite people of Chinese ethnicity making up just 9 per cent of the city's population.

The data did not show if the buyers were based here or overseas.

The tenor of many online responses on forums such as Skykiwi said Chinese people worked and saved hard to buy Auckland residential property, while New Zealanders spent up.

Skykiwi, which introduces New Zealand culture and lifestyle to the Chinese community, has 750,000 page views a day.

A spokesman said many people went on Skykiwi to defend their buying habits.

"People are saying they're working very hard and earning money and getting the reward and they have a different consumer behaviour to people who were born in New Zealand. It's because of Chinese tradition and cultural - they're quite happy to save the money," the spokesman said.

However, he also attributed differing attitudes to a cultural divide. "It's the difference between east and west cultures. So they say, 'Okay, we're working very hard and we're happy to put money into Auckland'."

The spokesman said he could not ascertain if respondents were based in China or New Zealand.

BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander joined the debate yesterday, calling on New Zealand leaders to require foreigners to build new places rather than buy existing Auckland houses. It comes amid warnings that rich Chinese investors will be looking to take their money out of China's turbulent stock market and invest in property overseas.

"We should as soon as possible adopt Australia's rules restricting foreign buying of anything other than new housing unless resident for 12 months," Alexander wrote.

A property insider, who did not want to be identified, said the issue was much bigger than depicted in the Labour figures. He said 80 to 90 per cent of residential properties in parts of Auckland were bought by Chinese money in March.

Meanwhile, Barfoot & Thompson chief executive Wendy Alexander said the company would start its own investigation to identify if it was the source of the leaked data. Barfoot sells one-third of Auckland properties and managing director Peter Thompson said if the data did belong to the firm it had been given illegally.

"We don't know whether it's our information. We're just seeking advice on any steps we need to be taking if it is our data. That's all I'm prepared to say."

Mr Thompson released a detailed memo to all staff yesterday, warning they must not disclose any internal figures and must act in the interest of their vendors.

Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said people could lodge a complaint to the commission for possible breach of information.

"If the source of the home buying data is established, people who think their personal information has been included can make a complaint to my office and we will look into it."

Buyers with Chinese surname still Kiwis

Two recent sales made by real estate company James Law Realty are to buyers whose surnames are Chen and Zhang.

James Law's company holds property roadshows in China. Photo / Dean Purcell

They may be Chinese, but having been in New Zealand for more than 10 years, neither would have fallen under Labour's classification of "foreign investor".

Principal agent James Law said Labour's leaked figures that showed 40 per cent of homes sold at auction in Auckland over a three-month period went to people with Asian surnames was "about right".

Mr Law said four out of 10 of the 350 who bought real estate through the company last year were of Chinese ethnicity.

"But what we found from our sales record was less than 10 per cent of them are actually overseas-based investors," he said. "Most of them are citizens or residents who have lived here for years."

Mr Law said it was "tradition" for Chinese people to buy real estate, and many made it their "first priority".

Many regarded real estate as a safe investment and one that they could either make a profit on or hand down to their children.

"This explains the high number of Chinese buyers and investors, because many find their security in owning houses," Mr Law said.

"In the same way, data on dairy business sales will show a high number of ethnic Indian buyers."

James Law Realty has more than 50 agents and offices in New Zealand and in Taiwan and Brunei, and it has a mainly Asian client base.

It regularly holds property roadshows in Chinese cities such as Beijing, Fuzhou and Guizhou.

Mr Law said Chinese people were generally quite cautious in parting with their money, and believed those who invested here would have New Zealand links - family or friends.

"The Chinese are not the type who would fly to New Zealand just to bid for houses in a room full of strangers."

Latest developments

•Chinese newspaper editor calls Labour claims "racist".

•Barfoot & Thompson launches investigation into leaked data.

•Privacy Commissioner says outcome can result in complaints.

•Property insider says Chinese bought up to 90 per cent of residential properties in parts of Auckland in March.

•BNZ chief economist says foreigners should build, not buy.

Chinese Herald & NZ Herald

Segway来啦！市中心地产代理用思维车吸引眼球

作者: 浏览次数:214 放大 缩小 默认

思维车引人注目，或有助於招徕生意。

近日，奥克兰市中心的地产中介要求代理们用两轮Segway思维车来取代普通汽车作为工作期间的代步工具。

作为专营公寓租售业务的代理商James Law Realty，正为其地产代理们配备Segway以解决工作期间在奥克兰市中心所遇到的通勤难题。首席地产代理James Law表示，使用电动思维车，能使代理更快见到顾客，并且不用再为与顾客的见面时间过长而担心停车超时。

“市中心的交通本来就很糟糕，要在这里找个停车的地方更是雪上加霜，”James Law说，“有了Segway，我们的代理可以直来直去，还可以把小车一同带进电梯。”本周已有两辆Segway投入使用，公司计划将会为他们的14位代理配备6部这样的交通工具。

James Law说：“在将来，奥克兰市政府计划建设更多人行道，到时在市中心开车会更难。所以我们寻找别的代步工具是一件很有商业眼光的事情。

我们之所以选用Segway，是因为它更加环保，且能适应不同路况，无论大路还是人行道上都能行驶。”

根据奥克兰的总体规划草案，政府计划未来30年内每个工作日早上进入奥克兰市中心的车辆将会从目前的34,385辆减少到500辆。这个规划区域包括了皇后街商业区部分，那里将会有更多像ElliotSt那样的人行道和公共空间。

Segway由美国的Segway公司生产，每部售价约14,000纽币。28岁的地产代理Michael Chen说使用了这种小车以後，他的工作效率得到了大大提高。“能不受交通拥堵和停车难的困扰真的很棒，你也不用再拔脚往约定地点狂奔了。”

另一位代理Michelle Kennedy，则对Segway引人注意的外观效果更为在意。“Segway很吸引眼球，在商业地产领域，这很重要。”Segway也被本地旅游业用作观光交通工具。

但Segway也并非完美无缺。美国2010年的一项研究表明，Segway的使用也导致交通事故的增加。Segway公司的创始人Jimi Heselden就在一次驾驶Segway的过程中不幸坠崖身亡。

去年12月，美国一名男子因演示操作Segway发生事故而导致脑部受伤，当地高院最终判决他获得1000万美元的赔偿。英国也在考虑将Segway划入汽车范围，并禁止其在人行道上行驶。

近年来部分Segway事故一览

2010年9月，Segway公司所有者、百万富翁Jimi Heselden死於Segway坠崖事故。

2011年12月，美国Norwalk的John Ezzo因Segway事故造成的脑损伤获得1000万美金的赔偿。

2011年12月，澳洲板球解说员Ian Healy在墨尔本板球场内从Segway上摔下来。

2003年6月，时任美国总统小布什在峰会期间不慎从Segway上摔倒在地。 

Chinese real estate boss debunks agent's claims of Chinese buying up Auckland houses as 'total bulls***'

By Lincoln Tan

6:33 PM Monday Aug 15, 2016

James Law, of real estate company James Law Realty. Photo / Dean Purcell

A Chinese real estate agent has penned an opinion piece for the Herald saying that Auckland is overwhelmed with Chinese.

The man said that instead of seeing a balanced ethnic mix, the city had "started to acquire an unwholesome Chinese flavour".

Here James Law, chief executive of James Law Realty responds to those comments:

Not only do I disagree, but I think what the Chinese real estate agent claims to total and complete bulls***.

I have been involved in Auckland's real estate scene for more than 20 years and full time for the last nine years.

Never, ever have I seen anyone, Chinese or not, carrying bagloads of cash to buy houses here.

Yes, some Chinese do come here to buy houses, but usually that's because they have got their residency approved or have children studying here and feel it makes more sense to buy than rent.

People born here, not all of them need to buy houses, because some have family properties to live in or some get houses passed down to them.

For immigrants there is no such option, so buying a house is a necessity and not a want.

Obviously this means you will see more migrants at auctions, and yes Asians and Chinese do stand out in the crowd. We have run auctions where there were no Chinese at all, like one in Waterview.

His comments about the two Japanese talking about Auckland being like China is a joke.

Why would two professionals in Tokyo be interested in Auckland being too Chinese?

Auckland is an international city, and one of the most multicultural in the world. You will expect to see people of different ethnicities buying properties.

It's not just the Chinese community, but I know many Kiwis are fuming too about what he said.

Why did he do it? I am guessing it is just about getting a profile - wanting to be famous by saying something controversial.

The reaction may not be what he is expecting, which is why he is hiding behind his anonymous status.

- NZ Herald

By Lincoln Tan