22 INSIDE Harcourts Much likemany countries, South Africa is experiencing the impact of higher interest rates. This was on the back of having record low interest rates for the past two years. As they say, “the party is over”. But is it? We are just experiencing amoderate slowdown in buyer interest but given the fact that the vast bulk of our network is still suffering from stock shortages, this is not amajor problem. We recently polled our leadership teams and found that nearly 80%of themdo not have enough sales stock tomeet buyer demand. So, we are still seeing really strong sales numbers despite the increased interest rates. Longer termwe expect this to taper off somewhat, but for now activity remains strong. The same poll also asked howpositive or negative the sentiment of our sales agents are at themoment. The great news is that more than 75%of our sales force is either positive or very positive and only 5%had a negative outlook. Longmay that continue!! We have an exciting quarter aheadwith six Regional Awards coming up. It is wonderful to have these events without compulsorymasks and people just seemso happy to be experiencing relative normality. Events like this are so critical to our culture andwe certainlymissed themwhen they were either not allowed or “reduced numbers”. Coming off such a strong quarter I amsure that a high percentage of the teamwill be receiving recognition for some amazing achievements. We have started converting our offices off H1 onto our newCRM platform. Although it is amammoth task, it is proceeding well and the first office whichmigrated has been very positive about the whole experience. We have a very busy six to ninemonths ahead as we roll out the newplatformacross the country Richard Gray CEO, Harcourts South Africa richard.gray@harcourtssa.co.za SOUTHAFRICA UPDATE Nandar Gunawan CEO, Harcourts Indonesia nandar@harcourts.co.id INDONESIA UPDATE A new rebranded office of Harcourts Bogor Raya was added to the network in July along with twenty-one teammembers came onboard. The grand opening took place on 7th August was a great success. We look forward to another newoffice inMalang whichwould be our 23rd office in Indonesia. The new trainingmaterial of Sales. The Harcourts Way has been localized. The program rolled out on the 4th of August for four days in great details for the first time since 2008. The NewH1Website that is locally designwas officially launched in July with great success despite debugging process continues. The training programon the newwebwent well. A fewmore features to be rolled out soon tomake the newwebmore powerful. A series of visiting offices started inMay after more than two and half years of absence. The visitation extended to Bali, Surabaya, Malang and Solo. It was a great experience travelling by air, road and train and meeting our teammembers. INPLACE
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