Four Seasons - 20 Year Milestone

Kevin McKay started in real estate over 25 years ago, at Harcourts Riccarton with Maxine Kazukaitis in the mid 1980’s. After a few years of putting in the hard graft, an opportunity presented itself and Kevin was in the right place at the right time. That impeccable timing has now brought him the celebration and recognition of being a Harcourts franchise owner for 20 years, and on the 15th of November Harcourts, Kevin and his Four Seasons franchise team celebrated that.

“I’d been made the Manager of the then Hornby office. As a manager you’re always thinking about the next stage of your career, and it seemed like a logical transition to get into ownership, so I became a franchise owner,” says Kevin. Shortly after, Four Seasons listed and sold the Wigram Airforce off-base housing complex on behalf of the Government so was doing very well.

“Once I was underway another opportunity came by and I went into partnership with David Johnston. He was the owner of the Barrington office at the time and so we thought it was a good time in the market to open a third office in Halswell together.”

In 2008 Rana Ransley from Ray White and now Kevin’s business partner, merged her business with Four Seasons’ Halswell office and together they have enjoyed great success. Now Four Seasons includes Halswell, Hornby, Rolleston, and a Property Management division which resides in the Hornby office. But like other offices in Christchurch, Four Seasons has also had to deal with the aftermath of the earthquakes and aftershocks. “Initially it was quite dramatic. We had an office in Hoon Hay which had to be closed, so we lost people from our team. It was a very stressful and trying time for all of us,” says Kevin. “This is quite a unique situation, and as an owner you are faced with many major challenges; it puts a real stop sign in the middle of business, not to mention the market. You have to work to keep your team together and keep your business together. We are just so lucky we have a really fantastic team of people who rallied around, and by doing that reduced the trauma of the situation significantly. In true Cantabrian spirit we’ve now bounced back and are in recovery mode.”

The positivity that exudes from these Cantabrians is so admirable and it’s no wonder they’ve produced one of the greatest All Black captains in history, they are just so determined. It needs to be said though that there is a lot of hard work to be done over the next 5, 10, 15 years. “The next few years in Christchurch are looking good with the rebuild and the creation of new subdivisions now underway. I would expect a very robust market in Christchurch over next few years as people set their feet firmly in place.”

Jo Clifford, Harcourts COO and Shareholder knows how hard the Christchurch business owners and teams have been working, “Our franchisees have shown true resilience and drive, as they have persisted through the Christchurch environment, managing the devastation. Kevin and the team are no different,” says Jo. “I know the team really pulled together and helped each other during the struggles of the last year. It really shows the leadership and trust they have in each other which goes beyond just running a business.”

Four Seasons is very active within the community and have been a regular Harcourts Foundation participant helping many community activities and groups such as being the major sponsor for the Rolleston Touch Rugby team and the Kirwee Volunteer Fire Brigade who used the granted money towards the cost of a support vehicle. Ronald McDonald house also are humbled by the generosity of the team who go in regularly to cook for the families, not to mention the Christchurch South Community Watch and various young people including the local Scout Group who benefit from the generosity of Four Seasons.

Kevin says he and the team loves being part of the community’s happiness, “It’s where we live and where our business comes from. Over the last 20 years of business the industry has changed but in a lot of ways it hasn’t – it’s still a people business,” says Kevin.

We’re sure Kevin and the Four Seasons team will continue to help and build business but more importantly lasting relationships with his town.