Harcourts Cooper & Co’s Ilse Evans says the last week of the school holidays in July was an unusually busy week, with the company surpassing the record with 1847 property viewings in seven days. Usually many families will head overseas on a winter escape to the Pacific Islands or Australia. However with the borders closed, it would appear that a lot of families went out shopping for bigger homes.
Bindi Norwell, chief executive at the Real Estate Institute, said the shortage of housing stock appears to be a continued influence on house prices because national demand for property has not faltered. “The top end of the market seems to have also benefited from the flow-on effect, seeing a 30.7 per cent increase in the $3m-plus category and a 38.5 per cent increase in the $5m-plus category nationally,” she said.
Meanwhile in Auckland, the number of million-dollar-plus properties sold during the first half of 2020 increased by 16.9 per cent, the largest annual percentage increase for the region since 2016. “Regardless of the difficulties faced over the last few months with Covid-19 and the lockdown period, the first half of 2020 still outperformed the first half of 2019 when it comes to $1m-plus sales,” said Norwell.
New Zealand and Auckland increased the number of property sales in the $1m-plus category, the $3m-plus category and the $5m-plus category in the first half of 2020 compared to the previous year, indicating the defiant strength of the national property market. Norwell said there were a number of potential factors that weigh into the rise of million dollar plus properties sold across the country. “That includes an ongoing shortage of supply combined with an increased level of demand (particularly over the last few months, with Kiwis returning home); improving consumer confidence; low interest rates and LVR opportunities for first home buyers; and continued investment in the regions.
Finally, Ilse says there also seem to be a lot of people now doing renovations on existing homes, or out shopping for more suitable properties, so for a level of service second to none, and for more information on real estate agents Belmont, property valuation Hauraki and property valuations Takapuna please go to https://www.ilseevans.co.nz.