Homes still selling despite decline in values
By Chrys Ayley
There is mixed news from the residential property market with declines in property values, sales taking longer but an increasingly buoyant rental market. Statistics released by QV for February show an 8.9 per cent decline in national property values over the past year, a drop from the 8.3 per cent reported for January. The average New Zealand sale price for February remained steady at $383,786 compared with average sales prices locally of $362,836 in the Hutt Valley, Upper Hutt $326,211, Porirua $402,260 and Wellington $489,636. Blue Hancock of QV Valuations said there are definite signs of more activity in the market, with more listings, more genuine buyer interest, and more sales. ?However, January had the lowest number of house sales for many years, and with traditionally more activity in February higher sales volume are to be expected? said. Managing director of Bruce Niven Realty Ltd of Johnsonville, who sells properties in the Wilton and Wadestown area through to Porirua, confirmed there have been a large numbers of people visiting open homes although there is still a certain buyer reluctance to make an offer with offers starting low. The market is going through a change with some excitement in December but volumes are levelling off, he said. ?We hope it is only a blip.? People are holding off, waiting for the good news that the market is at the bottom but when that happens and people resume buying but there will not be enough stock on the market, he said. ?I can see there?s going to be one big jump coming soon.? The rental market is quite tight at the moment with not much available as Wellington has had an influx of students, Mr Niven said. Licensee of Selig Real Estate Ltd in Lower Hutt Lorraine Girvan agrees that the rental market is quite strong with people renting out properties for ?good prices? rather than selling. Ms Girvan sells properties in the Western Hills and says it is harder to get vendors and purchasers to agree, but there are lots of buyers up to $600,000 and homes are still selling in a reasonable time frame. Over that figure and buyers tend to be ?a little more cautious about spending the extra money.? ?If homes are well priced and well promoted they are selling,? she said. ?It?s more difficult to negotiate the offers and I think the prices have gone down, probably by close to 10 per cent in the last 12 months. Over the years Ms Girvan said she has become pretty sceptical about how the rateable values are calculated and says if a house has not sold its RV ?could be out of kilter.? Auctions, she believes send out ?too many desperate signals? and could be confused with mortgagee sales. Open homes are attracting record numbers again and the number of genuine buyers recorded on their database is huge. ?We?re just waiting for the right properties to come up.?
