Northland backed to recover from economic downturn

An on-going belief in the future of Northland’s commercial and industrial real estate sectors has seen the expansion of the property services sector in the region.

Leading real estate agency Bayleys has added two senior commercial and industrial sales personnel to its Whangarei offices, to become the foremost player in the region.

Father and son duo Ross and Andrew Blomfield have joined Bayleys from former competitor Colliers. Ross Blomfield, who was previously with Bayleys between 2001 – 2007, has been working across Whangarei’s commercial and industrial property sector for three decades, while son Andrew is a relative ‘newcomer’ – with a mere five years track record.

Bayleys Whangarei manager Mike Symonds said that while Northland’s economy was currently in ‘recovery mode’, productivity, investment and activity were all being picked to lift from the third quarter of this year.

“Government and banking analysts are all now forecasting a national economic upturn across all sectors – manufacturing, retail, commercial and support services. This will be felt in Northland, as it will in all of New Zealand provincial areas, and in line with this, Bayleys has geared up its commercial and industrial sales resourcing levels in advance,” Mr Symonds said.

“Activity in the commercial and industrial property markets, as it has in the residential sector, has been somewhat subdued for the past two-and-a-half years. However, with the Official Cash Rate at a comparatively low level, and commodity prices at 17-year record levels, there is a back-log of investment capital beginning to stack up.

“The Christchurch earthquake aside, the New Zealand economy is looking stronger now than it has done for quite some time, and it is only a matter of months until that positivity flows through into the real estate sector.”

Mr Symonds said that with a stronger sales team, the Bayleys in the North Blomfield duo was confident of not only cementing its presence in the Whangarei marketplace, but also developing opportunities in smaller service centres such as Waipu, Ruakaka, Dargaville and Kaitaia.

“Through our marketing affiliations with all branches of the Bayleys network, we have a direct access to the considerable network of investors in greater Auckland,” he said.

“That opens up a whole new market for much-needed investment capital from outside of the existing Northland catchment area. That in turn can only be good for the long-term prosperity of the region.”

Ross Blomfield said he was excited about rejoining the Bayleys brand at a time when clients were looking for ‘bigger picture’ solutions to their property requirements.

“The connections within the Bayleys network, combined with the unparalleled resources and marketing tools available within the company, will give us a far bigger buyer target-market for the gamut of commercial and industrial properties available throughout Northland,” he said.