Harcourts Accelerates Sydney Expansion with Focus on Eastern Suburbs

Harcourts is continuing to expand its presence across Sydney, with the Eastern Suburbs emerging as a key focus as the network attracts established operators looking to grow while retaining the local businesses and relationships they have built.

Markets including Maroubra, Randwick and Coogee remain highly relationship-driven, where local knowledge, reputation and community connections play an important role in how agents win and retain business.

Harcourts Chief Growth Officer Tina Ashton (pictured) says the network’s growth strategy is centred on giving experienced operators access to the scale, resources and support of a major international brand without asking them to lose what makes their business successful.

“Business owners have spent years building their reputation, relationships and knowledge of their local market. That local connection is incredibly valuable, and it’s not something we want to take away,” Ashton said.

“What we can do is put a much bigger support structure behind them – technology, systems, marketing, training, compliance and people who can help them run and grow their business.”

That support includes technology designed to help agents win business, demonstrate their value to clients and make better use of property data.

Harcourts’ online Appraisal tool, for example, provides agents with a professional digital resource to support the appraisal process and help demonstrate their market knowledge and expertise to potential vendors.

Its REACH platform is another example, using property data and digital insights to help agents generate greater exposure for listings and have more informed conversations with vendors.

Across the Australian network, properties marketed using REACH have recorded an average price achievement of $907,377 compared with $896,301 without REACH – a difference of $11,076. The sale rate was also 79.7 per cent compared with 71.7 per cent – an eight percentage-point difference.

For Ashton, technology is ultimately about supporting the relationship between an agent and their client.

“Technology should make our people better at what they do, not get in the way of the relationships that make real estate work,” Ashton said.

“We want our agents to have better tools, better information and better support behind them, so they can spend more time doing what they do best – understanding their market and looking after their clients.”

The support extends across the operational side of running a real estate business, including systems and assistance with regulatory requirements such as anti-money laundering obligations, helping business owners manage responsibilities that can be increasingly complex for independent operators.

Importantly, that support does not mean offices have to give up their local identity. Harcourts offices retain the flexibility to build their own local presence, including customised websites, signage, office extensions and marketing.

“You don’t have to choose between being local and having scale,” Ashton said.

“You can still be the business your clients know and trust, but have the resources of a much bigger organisation behind you. That’s a very different proposition from simply putting a new brand on the door.”

That combination is proving particularly relevant as Harcourts builds its presence in Sydney, with established operators bringing their local experience, market knowledge and relationships into the network.

“We’re not looking to grow for the sake of having more offices,” Ashton said.

“We’re looking for good business owners who know their market, care about their clients and want to build something for the long term.

“If we can give them the backing, resources and reach of an international brand while allowing them to remain genuinely local, that’s a proposition we believe is worth exploring.”

Harcourts’ Sydney expansion will continue to focus on experienced operators who want to grow their businesses while retaining the independence, local knowledge and relationships that have made them successful.