We are now firmly into election month with polls opening across the country on Saturday, and all major parties doubling down on their election promises, including a variety of polices in and around property. We are now also officially in spring, but if you look at the market, and back at September it’s feeling a lot like summer!
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Market Performed Well Beyond Expectations, Great Indication for Summer
Data coming in from September has got the industry rubbing their hands as listings and sales perform well above predictions, breaking records and setting the foundations for a strong summer.
Data from Barfoot & Thompson, which is the largest real estate in the Auckland market has reported its best September sales in five years, selling 1099 residential properties – up 43% on September last year and the highest volume of sales in the month of September since 2015, which was the height of the last property boom.
What’s even more impressive is that the September sales also topped the 1096 sales the agency achieved in March this year, which is traditionally the busiest month of the year.
The high level of sales has undoubtedly been helped by the downward movement in mortgage interest rates, which many first-time buyers have seen as an opportunity to buy. The value of KiwiSaver withdrawals by first-home buyers increased by 25% in the 2020 financial year, withdrawing $1.2 billion in the year to March 31, according to the Financial Markets Authority’s (FMA) annual KiwiSaver report released last week.
The agency also had a surge of new listings In September, taking on 1947 additional properties for sale during the month. That was up 62% compared to September last year and the was the highest number of new listings received in the month of September since 2015. Property website Realestate.co.nz also echoed this trend, receiving 10,050 new residential listings in September, up 12.9% compared to September last year, and almost back up to the levels seen in the peak summer months of February and March this year.
But it’s not just a buyer’s market, Barfoot & Thompson’s average and median residential selling prices both hit new record highs in September, with the average price falling just short of $1 million at $996,945 and the median price coming in at $930,000.
Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson commented that figures suggest that both buyers and sellers believe it’s a great time to be in the market and that we could be heading for a very busy summer, “The current prices being paid by buyers show confidence that prices are likely to hold firm over the medium term.”
With both summer and election day looming ever closer, it will be very interesting to see how these figures hold in October.
-by Ravi Mehta from Professional Financial Solutions