Cooper & Co Real Estate Ltd, trading as Harcourts Albany, and its related entities (collectively, Harcourts, us, we, our) are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. Harcourts is required to comply with the Privacy Act 2020 (Privacy Act) in New Zealand.

The purpose of this privacy statement is also to inform you of your rights in relation to your personal information. It covers the collection, processing and other use of personal data under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018.

Other policies may apply instead of or in addition to this Privacy Policy in certain circumstances, including Harcourts Group Limited’s Privacy Policy where Harcourts Group Limited separately collects, holds, uses or discloses personal information.

By using a Harcourts website (including websites at www.harcourts.co.nz, www.harcourts.net, www.luxurypropertyselection.com, www.harcourtsfoundation.org, www.academyrealestatetraining.com and any other website we, or Harcourts Group Limited may establish or operate from time to time), and/or providing your personal information to us you consent to us handling your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

What personal information do we collect?

The kinds of personal information we collect and hold about you, and our use of that information, is dependent on the products and services we provide to you.

We may collect your:

• Name;
• Date of birth;
• Telephone number;
• Email address;
• Postal address;
• References (in relation to rental arrangements and job applicants);
• Financial information (such as bank details for the purposes of transferring the balance of a deposit amount or marketing refunds), and
• Copies of photo identification, including licence details.

We may also collect non-personal information associated with you such as the details of the products or services you have enquired about, your occupation, property value, rental amounts, insurance details, references (in relation to rental arrangements and job applications).

How do we collect your personal information?

Generally, we collect your personal information directly from you unless it is impracticable or unreasonable to do so. This includes when you provide your information to us at open homes we conduct (for example, when you sign an Open Home Register), via online services that process your enquiry or application (such as various customer relationship management software providers) or via paper applications. Where personal information is collected at an open home, those details are entered into our customer relationship management software to administer open homes and related health and safety processes, including confirming that you have read and acknowledged the property’s Hazard Register.

From time to time, we may also collect personal information about you from third parties, for example, through third-party real estate websites through which you make an enquiry about a property listed by us, from your representative, publicly available sources, referees where you apply for a position with us, or other parties involved in a transaction. If you provide us with personal information about a person that you represent, we collect it on the basis that you have that person’s consent for us to collect and handle their personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

When collecting your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to provide you with certain information as required under the Privacy Act, including the purpose of collection, who we may disclose your personal information to, any law that requires or authorises us to collect the information and the main consequences if we do not collect all of the personal information we require. If we collect your personal information from another source, we will take reasonable steps to ensure you are aware of the fact and the circumstances of that collection.

Generally, if we are unable to collect the personal information we require, we may not be able to provide you with the products and services you seek. If the information provided is incorrect or incomplete, this may also prevent, limit or otherwise affect our ability to provide products or services to you.

Harcourts Group Limited and the shared customer relationship management system
As a Harcourts franchise office, we use a shared customer relationship management system used across the Harcourts franchise network. When we enter your personal information into that system (including VaultRE and customer feedback platforms such as AskNicely), Harcourts Group Limited may also collect your personal information indirectly from us and may hold that information in connection with the operation of that system. Harcourts Group Limited’s principal office is at 7–9 Alpers Avenue, Newmarket, Auckland, and it can be contacted by telephone on 09 520 5569, by mail at PO Box 99 549, Newmarket, Auckland 1023, or by email at privacy@harcourts.net. Harcourts Group Limited collects and holds this information for purposes including operating and supporting the shared customer relationship management system, customer experience measurement and feedback collection (including surveys and service reviews) system support, maintenance and troubleshooting, security, audit, compliance and network operations purposes. Further information about how Harcourts Group Limited collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, including the intended recipients of that information, is set out in the Harcourts Franchisor Privacy Policy. You have the right to request access to, and correction of, personal information held about you by us and by Harcourts Group Limited.

Cookies and tracking pixels

Our website(s) and those operated by Harcourts Group Limited use cookies. We do not use the information stored in those cookies to collect information about you or your computer. The cookies are used for statistical purposes and to assist with your use of the website. We may also collect click-stream data when you use the website, such as the date and time of your visit, the pages you accessed, your IP address, the type of browser and operating system you are using and the websites you come from and move to. This information is collected for statistical purposes to assist us to find out how our website is used and navigated and to improve our website.

Harcourts websites may contain links to third party websites. We and Harcourts Group Limited are not responsible for the privacy, security or handling of your personal information via those websites. You should review the Privacy Policy and terms of use for those websites each time you visit them.

Why do we collect, hold and use your personal information?

We will use and disclose your personal information for the purposes for which we collected it, and for other related purposes that you would reasonably expect.

Generally, these purposes include:

• Operating within a national real estate franchise network;
• responding to your enquiries;
• providing you with products and services;
• providing you with marketing information about our products and services and other third parties with whom we have business partner relationships;
• obtaining your feedback on your customer experience;
• conducting promotional activities;
• our general business (including performing business functions and disclosing personal information to Harcourts Group Limited, our real estate agents, employees, contractors, service providers and other third parties where reasonably necessary for those purposes);
• conducting market research;
• recruitment;
• maintenance of our business records;
• compliance with legal and insurance obligations;
• statistical purposes;
• providing real estate agency services for the buying, selling, leasing, development and advertising of residential, commercial and rural properties, business broking, training and providing services in connection with arranging utility connection, removalists, cleaners, conveyancing, financing and insurance;
• to comply with any law, rule or regulation or decision of a regulator or Government authority.

By providing us with your personal information, you consent to us using your personal information for these purposes. You agree that we may send you such information by post or by electronic means such as email. You can opt-out of marketing and promotional communications at any time by contacting our Privacy Officer via the details shown below.

How do we disclose your personal information?

We may disclose your personal information to:

• Harcourts Group Limited, as franchisor and operator of shared customer relationship management systems used across the Harcourts franchise network, for support, security, audit, compliance and network operations purposes;
• other Harcourts franchise offices where necessary in connection with referrals, conjunctions, customer support, administration, or other related services;
• our employees, licensees, agents, contractors, and business partners for the purposes set out above, and for the purposes of those parties providing services to us or performing business services or functions on our behalf;
• third parties with whom we have business partner relationships, as described in the applicable Harcourts Business Partners List (updated from time to time). These partners are engaged predominantly for marketing, customer communications, and related support services. Personal information provided by you to a Harcourts office may be shared with Harcourts’ business partners (with your consent and where reasonably necessary) in connection with the services we provide, including where you are a party to a sale and purchase agreement that has become unconditional, where you have entered into a property management or letting authority (for landlords), and where you have entered into a tenancy agreement or are being onboarded as a tenant;
• Third parties for statistical and market reporting purposes (for example, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ)), but only where you are a party to a sale and purchase agreement that has become unconditional;
• Other companies or individuals who assist us in providing services or who perform functions on our behalf (such as mailing houses, hosting and data storage providers, specialist consultants and legal advisers);
• other companies or individuals who perform checks (such as but not limited to compliance reviews and audits) that are necessary or desirable under law on our behalf;
• other companies, agencies or individuals that maintain databases against which your identity may be verified, which may include (but is not limited to) the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, and New Zealand Transport Agency;
• social media sites on which we may have a presence;
• courts, tribunals and regulatory authorities (such as the Real Estate Authority, and Ministry of Justice in New Zealand);
• Office of the Ombudsman, where a complaint relates to official information;
• any person or agency we believe could assist in responding to a serious privacy breach.
• Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, where a complaint relates to breach of the Privacy Act 2020;
• Human Rights Commission, where a complaint relates to discrimination;
• CERT NZ, where appropriate to assist with the management of a voluntarily notified privacy breach
• Overseas privacy regulator, where a complaint relates to the actions of an overseas agency;
• if you are undertaking a Harcourts training course we may disclose information to a third party about you or your course for the purposes of assessing your progress, tracking your attendance, providing student support, issuing your results, and providing certificates of completion and/or Statement of Attainments (SoA for nationally recognised training); and
• anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it.

Apart from the above instances, we may also use and disclose your personal information with your consent and as otherwise required or permitted by law.

Information collection outside of shared case management system

Harcourts offices are independently owned and operated. Some sales consultants may collect and retain your personal information outside the shared customer relationship management system (e.g., in their own CRM or mailing list). These collections and disclosures are made by the relevant Franchisee consultant and are governed by their own privacy policies. For requests or opt-outs relating to such records, please contact the relevant Franchisee consultant or office. You can find a Franchisee office’s contact details and a copy of its privacy policy on its official Harcourts Franchisee website.

Storage of personal information

We may hold your personal information in electronic formats or in hard copy, at our offices or at premises outside our offices, including data storage facilities or online storage located within or outside New Zealand, which may be operated by independent service providers. Personal information may also be held by Harcourts Group Limited in connection with the operation of the shared customer relationship management system and related support services.

Where your personal information is transferred outside New Zealand, we will ensure the intended recipient has provided appropriate safeguards and that requisite rights and remedies in relation to the personal information remain available, or we will obtain your explicit consent for the transfer.

Management of personal information

We take reasonable steps to securely store your personal information to ensure it is protected from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure, and from other types of misuse, interference and loss. This includes electronic and physical security measures and procedures, staff training and use of password protection software.

We will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your personal information when we no longer require it for any purpose for which it was collected. We may retain your personal information for as long as necessary to comply with any applicable law, for legal, insurance and corporate governance purposes, for the prevention of fraud and to resolve disputes. Your personal information may also be retained in our IT system back-up records.

The transfer of data over the Internet is inherently insecure. We cannot guarantee the security, during transmission, of any personal information provided to us via our websites. Please bear this in mind when transmitting information by this means to us.

Your right to access and correct your personal information we hold

The Privacy Act and the GDPR give you the right to access information held about you by us. You may lodge a request to access and correct personal information that we hold about you if you believe it is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, irrelevant or misleading by contacting our Privacy Officer via the contact details shown below.

You may request that we provide you with access to the personal information we hold about you. Generally, we will provide you with access, except in limited circumstances where the Privacy Act permits us to deny access. Any such requests must be made in writing and directed to our Privacy Officer via the details shown below. We will respond to your request within 20 working days of the day on which the request is received.

Under the Privacy Act, we may be permitted to charge you a reasonable fee for providing access to your personal information. Please note that no fee will be incurred for requesting access, and if your request for access is accepted we will inform you of the fee (if any) that will be payable for providing access if you proceed with your request.

You may ask us to inform you of the source of any personal information about you that we have collected from a third party. We will provide this at no cost, except in limited circumstances where laws permit us to withhold this information.

You have the right to change the permissions that you have given us in relation to how we may use your data. You also have the right to request that we cease using your data or that we delete all personal data records that we hold relating to you. You can exercise these rights at any time by writing to our Privacy Officer at the address detailed below.

Making a complaint

You may lodge a complaint with us if you believe we have handled your personal information other than in accordance with the Privacy Act. To do so please contact our Privacy Officer via the contact details below. We will confirm receipt of your complaint and set out the time frame we require to investigate your complaint and provide you with a response. We will endeavour to respond as quickly as possible, which will typically be within 14 days of receiving your complaint.

You have the right to make a complaint to the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner. This can be done through the Privacy Commissioner online complaint form here: https://privacy.org.nz/your-rights/making-a-complaint/complaint-form/

Contact us

If you would like further information about the way we manage your personal information, or if you have a privacy-related complaint, please contact our Privacy Officer by telephone on 09 451 9300, by mail at 232 Dairy Flat Highway, Albany, Auckland, Auckland or by email at sales.albany@harcourts.co.nz.

For the purpose of the GDPR, we are the data controller and any enquiry regarding the collection or processing of your data should be addressed to our Privacy Officer at the contact details above.

Franchise office privacy contacts
If your enquiry, request or complaint relates to personal information collected or held by a Harcourts franchise office (rather than Harcourts Group Limited), please contact that office directly. Each office has its own Privacy Officer or nominated contact person responsible for privacy matters.
You can usually find the office’s Privacy Officer contact details and a copy of its Privacy Policy on its official Harcourts office webpage.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We encourage you to make sure that you are familiar with the current version of our Privacy Policy. Any change we make applies from the date the updated Privacy Policy is posted on our website. This Privacy Policy was last updated on 30 April 2026.

Office of the Privacy Commissioner

More information about your rights and our obligations in connection with your personal information are available from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at www.privacy.org.nz