Web development firm Website Blue has announced a website development partnership with New Zealand headquartered Harcourts International. The deal is believed to be among the largest ever in the region for a real estate agency web development project and will see an initial fee for the design and development as well as a 12-month subscription fee for hosting, maintenance and support.
Harcourts is the leading franchise group in New Zealand and one of the leading real estate sites in the country in its own right, attracting around a third of the traffic of Realestate.com.nz according to similarweb. The company is also strong in Australia and has a growing presence in South Africa, USA, Canada and China. Part of the project will see the company's web traffic across some 2,000 domains (currently estimated to be over 1 million monthly visitors) aggregated for smoother analysis.
Luke Thomas, COO of Website Blue said of the deal:
"The new Harcourts infrastructure will be developed using the Website Blue industry-leading property engine. This ensures Harcourts will maintain its cutting edge position in the industry, enjoying advanced, intuitive integrations directly into leading property technologies."
Steve Caradoc-Davies, CEO of Harcourts International said:
"The online world is thriving, with many of our potential clients and partners starting their real estate journey online - whether buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, agent or potential franchisee, our partnership with Website Blue sees the reimagining of our websites, providing an industry-leading experience that will help us dominate the online space with a voice that few of our competitors have been able to accomplish."
The latest deal is an important milestone for Website Blue as well as for parent company The PropTech Group which acquired the website development firm in February. The PropTech Group also owns and operates leading CRM solutions MyDesktop and VaultRE in Australia and New Zealand and, after signing a landmark deal with leading Aussie real estate firm Ray White Group at the start of the year, has plans to expand to other developed English-speaking markets in the future.