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NZ Herald, 23.06.2004
We're no cowboys - agent
By ANNE GIBSON
A New Zealand real estate agent campaigning to sell Auckland apartments to Australians says he cannot keep up with demand from Sydney.
But City Sales boss Martin Dunn said he was irked by allegations this month from Australian real estate agent and industry crusader Neil Jenman that Auckland apartment marketers and sellers had become the "Queensland cowboys" of Australasian property.
Dunn said Auckland agents were not selling overpriced apartments to Australians in revenge for Queensland timeshare scams wrought on New Zealanders.
"I am particularly sensitive to our being branded as the Queensland cowboys. We are deluged with Australians. Without any advertising in Australia, we sold 14 suites out of 28 to Australians last month in The Statesman at 1 Parliament St and we are marketing more on The Statesman in Sydney next month and Melbourne in August."
City Sales has a marketing programme in the Sydney Morning Herald to advertise 52 units in the 229-unit The Statesman near the High Court. Studios are selling from $150,000 and two-bedroom units are priced from $320,000. The penthouses, each about 70sq m, were sold for $475,000 and $550,000, Dunn said.
Australians were keen to buy Auckland apartments because they could get a 7 per cent net return, compared with a 2 per cent return in Sydney.
Dunn also rejected criticism from Jenman about Auckland apartments being overpriced for Australians but cheaper for New Zealanders.
"There is no two-tier marketing done to my knowledge in New Zealand and the implication that we are doing to the Australians what they have traditionally done to New Zealanders - a price for locals and one for out-of-towners - is unjustified and cannot be substantiated."
He was responding to criticism this month from Jenman, an anti-auction real estate agent who visited an apartment project site at 96 Symonds St in Auckland, where McLeod Group and Southside Group want to build a $38 million tower.
Jenman saw the project as an example of hyped prices being aggressively marketed in Australia.
"Jenman has very cleverly confused the public to the point of prostituting himself against his own profession and paints a plausible but appalling picture of what we do," Dunn said.
"He seduces the public and a number of salespeople with superb rhetoric by deliberately confusing the term customer and applying it to both vendor and purchaser.
"His other plausible trick is to profess that agents know what a property will sell for - which is insincere, at my most charitable - and that if you ask, purchasers will declare what their highest buying ability is. Jenman's arguments deny human nature but are extremely logical to the unsophisticated."
Jenman said from Sydney that the Auckland apartments were over-priced. He disagreed with Dunn but said it was natural an apartment realtor would defend the business.
"Of course Mr Dunn would say that. He is a real estate agent. The critics are always agents, not the consumers."
Jenman said he had researched Auckland thoroughly. He had spoken to many New Zealanders when he visited in the past few weeks and they told him the apartments were overpriced.
We're no cowboys - agent
By ANNE GIBSON
A New Zealand real estate agent campaigning to sell Auckland apartments to Australians says he cannot keep up with demand from Sydney.
But City Sales boss Martin Dunn said he was irked by allegations this month from Australian real estate agent and industry crusader Neil Jenman that Auckland apartment marketers and sellers had become the "Queensland cowboys" of Australasian property.
Dunn said Auckland agents were not selling overpriced apartments to Australians in revenge for Queensland timeshare scams wrought on New Zealanders.
"I am particularly sensitive to our being branded as the Queensland cowboys. We are deluged with Australians. Without any advertising in Australia, we sold 14 suites out of 28 to Australians last month in The Statesman at 1 Parliament St and we are marketing more on The Statesman in Sydney next month and Melbourne in August."
City Sales has a marketing programme in the Sydney Morning Herald to advertise 52 units in the 229-unit The Statesman near the High Court. Studios are selling from $150,000 and two-bedroom units are priced from $320,000. The penthouses, each about 70sq m, were sold for $475,000 and $550,000, Dunn said.
Australians were keen to buy Auckland apartments because they could get a 7 per cent net return, compared with a 2 per cent return in Sydney.
Dunn also rejected criticism from Jenman about Auckland apartments being overpriced for Australians but cheaper for New Zealanders.
"There is no two-tier marketing done to my knowledge in New Zealand and the implication that we are doing to the Australians what they have traditionally done to New Zealanders - a price for locals and one for out-of-towners - is unjustified and cannot be substantiated."
He was responding to criticism this month from Jenman, an anti-auction real estate agent who visited an apartment project site at 96 Symonds St in Auckland, where McLeod Group and Southside Group want to build a $38 million tower.
Jenman saw the project as an example of hyped prices being aggressively marketed in Australia.
"Jenman has very cleverly confused the public to the point of prostituting himself against his own profession and paints a plausible but appalling picture of what we do," Dunn said.
"He seduces the public and a number of salespeople with superb rhetoric by deliberately confusing the term customer and applying it to both vendor and purchaser.
"His other plausible trick is to profess that agents know what a property will sell for - which is insincere, at my most charitable - and that if you ask, purchasers will declare what their highest buying ability is. Jenman's arguments deny human nature but are extremely logical to the unsophisticated."
Jenman said from Sydney that the Auckland apartments were over-priced. He disagreed with Dunn but said it was natural an apartment realtor would defend the business.
"Of course Mr Dunn would say that. He is a real estate agent. The critics are always agents, not the consumers."
Jenman said he had researched Auckland thoroughly. He had spoken to many New Zealanders when he visited in the past few weeks and they told him the apartments were overpriced.
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