The Unconditional Blog

As one of the hardy souls who attended the All Blacks vs Ireland game on Saturday it certainly felt as though winter has arrived. This was affirmed yesterday whilst running an open home in Broadmeadows with a magnificent backdrop of snow-covered hills beyond Wellington Harbour.

The Saturday property section in the Dompost was noticeably thinner than past weeks which can mean a couple of things. Either vendors have run out of advertising money to keep marketing their property week after week (because the price does not meet the market) or vendors are beginning to withdraw properties from the market that are not saleable.

I am leaning more towards the latter reason which will be a positive move in the current marketplace as I have mentioned in past posts we have an over-supply scenario. This may start to balance things out again depending if buyer activity remains steady as it has been over the last few weeks.

This morning I have been looking back over sales statistics for Wellington and although I don’t consider myself a qualified statistician there were a few interesting points to be noted. Sales Wellington wide have certainly dropped in volume with April bringing the lowest figure in the last 12 months. In light of this however the median sale price has remained relatively constant evening out at $375,000 in April. The most notible increase has been days on the market creeping out to 42. This is really representative of the current pricing issue vendors face – with so many properties for sale the price has to be competitive or the property will remain on the market unsold.

Breaking sales down further within the Wellington region also makes interesting reading as certain suburbs out perform others. The western suburbs have shown the greatest resistance to the current market environment with a median sale time of 28 days and the median price hold around $505,000. This shows there is still fantastic demand for properties from Wadestown to Karori.

In brief, often the general public are delivered fairly ambiguous information on the housing market and nationwide statistics are used. These figures can not accurately reflect what is going on in specific areas and it would be wise to further investigate yourself. The internet can be a very powerful tool for such research and will allow you to make better informed decisions. Let me know if you’d like some more specific information on a particular area and I can post some relevant figures for you.

Greetings, there has been alot of fuss out in the market over recent months with predictions of doom and gloom. This has been fuelled partly by the media but the market has been well due for a correction and this is perhaps what is now taking place – a natural correction.

Being out in the market place every day of the week you get a good grasp on what buyers are thinking and feeling. Our feedback has been people are sitting on their hands because they believe prices will drop which is happening. In the last couple of weeks we have seen life coming back into the local market with interest rates coming back a few points and prices easing. Part of the problem has been an over-supply of properties and what will be evident in the coming months is the vendors who do not need to be on the market will come off, prices will adjust accordingly, and things will settle down. Investors are certainly starting to come out of the wood work and snap up good deals often beating owner occupiers on good properties.

It is certainly interesting times and the market is shifting weekly and for the buyers who put in the effort and keep their finger on the pulse – the rewards will come.

Greetings again – There has certainly been alot of media attention towards the state of the New Zealand housing market with predictions of doom and gloom becoming the norm. In my opinion, alot of this has been taken in reflection upon the rampant market boom of the last 6 years, when in reality we are just returning to a normal balanced market. Statistics do tell facts and things have slowed down with houses taking longer to sell, but generally if a property is priced well and presented and marketed to the right people then a great result can still be achieved. It can actually be a great time to get to the next property rung on the ladder, because if you are buying and selling in the same market then to upsize is comparatively cheaper ie if prices drop 5%,  a $300,000 house equates to a $15,000 fall where as a $400,000 house means a $20,000 drop. Fortunately for we Wellingtonians our market is fairly stable historically with enough government activity generated in our public sector to keep our local economy  and the housing market moving ahead.

I am interested to see this shared equity scheme the Government is rollling out in July and what effects it will have for the market and response from first home buyers.