Harcourts New Zealand’s commitment to the training, mentoring and employment of auctioneers paid dividends in July with Andrew North named as National Champion at the REINZ National Auctioneering Championships for 2015. Andrew, from Harcourts Cooper & Co Ltd on the North Shore, has been an auctioneer for 13 years. He won the title after a tough two days of competition against the 25 top real estate auctioneers in the country. Andrew is also the current Australasian Auctioneer of the Year and will now go on to defend his title in Melbourne later in the year.

Another Harcourts auctioneer, Sam Walmsley, also of Harcourts Cooper & Co, was named the 2015 Rising Star at the awards. Harcourts commitment to training and mentoring the country’s top auctioneers was demonstrated not only by the double win, but by the fact that 13 of the 25 competitors at this week’s REINZ National Auctioneering Championship were from Harcourts. Two of the four finalists in the Senior competition, Andrew North and Aaron Davis of Blue Fern Realty, were Harcourts auctioneers. In the Rising Stars competition, four of the 12 entrants were from the Harcourts NZ team.