What makes New Zealanders special?

We all like to think that we are different from the next person. A little bit special. In Aotearoa, New Zealand what makes us unique is our Māori whakapapa and the Māori language. Nowhere else in world can you experience our culture (except perhaps the Gold Coast - just jokes). Many traditional Māori values are now often recognised as values of being a kiwi. Things such as connection to the whēnua (land), looking after and caring for visitors (manaakitanga), the importance of being humble (whakaiti) are seen as general kiwi characteristics.

Our values

As the owner of Dunedin Property Management I am in a fortunate position. I get to decide how we operate, how we act, and what we do and say as a company. I believe that it's important to be authentic and as such I have always tried to integrate my personal values and beliefs into the values of the company. As a Māori man from Aotearoa these values have included things such as respect, caring, integrity, fairness, compassion and understanding. I think these values have allowed us to walk the fine line of optimising return on investment for owners and ensuring a high standard of homes for our tenants.

Te Reo Māori

In the last 6 months I've started to realise that these values are more than just a set of guiding principles but are in fact what makes Dunedin Property Management unique. Instead of being vanilla with a splash of chocolate, I've decided to start going all in on things that I feel strongly about. One of those things is Te Reo Māori. Despite being an official language of New Zealand I have never seen* te reo being used much in real estate. Last month I began incorporating more te reo into our everyday activities.

Mōterēti - For Rent

It started with a sign and a Linkedin Post. The response was immediate and polarising - some people loved it and some people questioned it. It was definitely not vanilla and the audience engagement was high. As an advertising tool this is all you could hope for.

Listings in te reo

Last week we posted our first ever property listing entirely in te reo Māori without translation. We did this on our website, on Trademe, and on Facebook marketplace. We made sure that people could understand the key elements by utilising non - language cues such as images and emoji. The engagement has been high and the response mostly positive with large numbers at viewings. I highly recommend checking out the listing that was shared in this Dunedin Rentals facebook group. The engagement was very high with over 4.9k views, 4 shares, and 30 comments. The majority of the comments are very supportive and positive.

Regardless of using te reo or not the most important thing is that the advertising does the job that is intended. To date this listing is producing results that exceed what we’d normally expect to achieve and should allow us to select a good tenant for this property. In summary, I think this advertising campaign has been a success.

What next?

I think that the end goal would be to have a property management company that is truly bilingual speaking and writing in both English and Māori, that incorporates things Māori into our systems and processes, and through these things help to correct the imbalance for Māori within the real estate sector. I hope that one day I will stand up in tenancy tribunal speaking in te reo māori and being understood directly by the adjudicator who also speak Māori.