There is no doubt that today’s home buyers, looking to make that move, are very price conscious, very price and value educated. This means that even when they see the property that is ideal for them, they won’t just pay any price.

There is also no doubt that some properties languish on the market for months. One clear principle in real  estate marketing, is that time on the market erodes value. 

Therefore, when selling your property, it is vital to get it right first time. The things to get right are:

• Your property.  Prepare your property to look it’s best.
• Get the price right! The most buyers for any property are in the market in the first 10-14 days. Don’t wait and see and drop your price later. The best buyers may have been and gone. If you can’t agree on the right asking price sell by Auction or Tender.
• Your Marketing: You only have one chance to make the biggest impact. Launch with the biggest and best campaign you can. The first two weeks are critical!

New Zealand house sales numbers ease slightly which is unusual for our Spring Market and the median price rises ever so slightly. Nationally, the Spring Market is not producing the expected “lift” and stays quite steady. Every Spring we expect a surge in sales as families seek to get moved before the summer. September gave us a clue that this Spring would not be as busy as hoped and October’s sales figures confirm that.

Whilst we remain over 5000 sales for October at 5,007 it is down 228 compared to September, when we all expected it to rise. Maybe buyers were distracted by the Rugby World Cup, the upcoming election and the unsettling events in the European Financial Markets. On the North Shore sales have been steady while Harcourts market share has increased.

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Tony Alexander

I still have a struggle reconciling the negative reports in New Zealand media- both the press and on TV, about the real estate market. The are simply out of touch with the reality of a great real estate market here on the North Shore.
It’s quite simple. Buyers are in the market and actively buying homes right now. These are the results from recent auctions I have conducted
13 Katui Street, Castor Bay

over 60 groups attending open homes, 70 at the auction, 6 buyers, 3 bidders….sold $1,300,000, unconditionally.
1 Trafalgar Road, Milford

over 60 attending open homes, 50 came to the auction, with strong bidding by 3 parties up to $780,000.
9 Sandford Street, Campbells Bay

50 groups attending open homes, 50 at the auction, 4 buyers, 3 bidders, strong bidding up to $760,000 and then someone mad a king bid and took it away for $825,000.
Over the last two months the Harcourts Milford office has sold 65 homes with a total value of over $40,000,000.

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Spring has definitely arrived in Auckland, all that bad weather in September seems a distant memory. Kings Garden Centre was nuts last Sunday, everyone was out buying their tomato plants and I could smell steak on the neighbours BBQ last evening!

And, despite some gloomy reports in the news, spring is definitely sprung our auction results. It is notable that Auckland seems to be the only bright spot for house sales in the country, and it is very difficult in Christchurch right now. A LIM report can take up to 6 weeks due to the damage the Christchurch City Council records department sustained in the earthquake.

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From Suzanne Isherwood of Mortgage Express:

With the banks economists predicting one thing and the rates doing the opposite, it is quite confusing at the moment to try and understand what the rates might in the future, especially so for first time buyers. The ASB Economists had this to say:

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) began lifting the OCR by 25 basis points in both June and July, bringing the OCR to 3%. We expect the RBNZ to take a break from lifting the OCR in October and December. We expect rate hikes will resume in January, with the OCR steadily increased by 25 basis points at each meeting until the OCR reaches 4.5%.

Following the lifts in the OCR, floating rate mortgages have started to increase, and we expect the floating mortgage rate to continue to rise over the next year in line with future OCR rate increases. This may prompt some borrowers to move to fix the floating part of their debts. Our calculations suggest there is not much cost difference over a 2-year horizon between floating and fixing. This means the certainty of short-term fixed rates now comes at very little cost. In addition, the recent decline in the 2-year rate does marginally increase its attractiveness, although we do emphasise a large degree of uncertainty remains around the pace of OCR increases over the next year.
Beyond the 3-year mark, fixing remains expensive (despite recent declines in rates) but there is the benefit of more certainty if that is an important factor in the decision. Indeed, if this is something you are willing to pay a premium for, then now is an opportune time to fix as there is no guarantee 3 to 5 year rates will remain this low for long.
The trend over the next year will be for shorter-term mortgage rates to start lifting back to average, or slightly above-average rates. With long-term fixed rates relatively high, it is really only the floating or short-term fixed rates that offer value. Priority will be dictated by borrowers’ preference for maximising the chance of low debt servicing costs or smoothing the inevitable increase in mortgage rates.

Current rates:

Floating   6.10%   Westpac Choices
6 months   6.25% Wpac
1 year   6.45%   All banks
2 year   6.85%   All banks
3 year   7.15%   National Bank
4 year   7.45%   ASB & Wpac
5 year   7.75%   All banks