Wellington buyers are having to fight a bit harder to secure a house as the number of properties for sale in the capital plunged, with agents reporting an increase in buyer demand and, in one case, traffic jams outside open homes.
New residential listings in the capital in June were down 14% year-on-year, with total stock numbers similarly tightening. The drop in listings is having an impact on prices, with REINZ reporting a month-on-month lift in the capital’s median sale price in June.
Harcourts Team Group chief executive Marty Ritchie says well-presented properties are drawing a lot of interest, with up to 50 or 60 groups passing through opens within the first week of those properties hitting the market.
“Their pool of what they’ve got to look at is considerably smaller and, I guess for want of a better term, there’s a lot of people that were waiting for the bottom. And it feels like we’ve probably hit the bottom and nipped up ever so slightly,” he says.
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Not only is it driving up open home numbers, but it is also pushing up the number of offers being made on a single property.
“When we’ve got such little stock, it just feels like those people out there now are having to fight a little bit harder than they were before.”
Among those looking are first-home buyers who may have been waiting for the market to bottom out, he says.
Last week, The Post reported traffic jams outside open homes in the capital. Lowe & Co agent Murray Potts says one of his listing in Newlands attracted 180 groups and more cars than the residential streets could cope with.
“It is like 2020 to 2021 all over again,” he told The Post.
Bayleys general manager Grant Henderson says stock numbers are down by about 30% compared with last year which is resulting in more interest both in terms of open home numbers and offers on the few properties currently for sale.
Homes in the $600,000 to $800,000 price bracket are hot property, he says, with just under 30% of buyers looking for their first home.
A new three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Murray Street, in the Upper Hutt suburb of Wallaceville, and a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home on Norfolk Crescent, in Otaki – both aimed at the first-home buyer and investor market, received multiple offers.
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Henderson says buyers are actively shopping because they now realise that prices have come back harder than interest rates had gone up.
“We are down 30% on the highs of last year ... we are just seeing green shoots, a little bit of positivity. We are not off to the races yet, there’s no way we are because the cost of living crisis is still biting people, but there are still people prepared to take action. So, we are not seeing prices race off, we are just seeing activity go and I think that’s an important part.”
Tommy’s sales director Tim Clark says listing numbers are lower than they usually are during the traditional winter slump and the only buyer group not as active are investors.
Open homes are busier and half of the properties that have sold in July have had more than one offer made on them, he says.
A three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on Murray Street, Wallaceville, attracted multiple offers from first-home buyers and investors. Photo / Supplied
A property on Monaghan Avenue, Karori, and another on Herald Street, Berhampore, sold after getting five offers each.
“There’s actually more buyers entering the market. We’ve got more people at open homes, more online searches, more multi-offers happening, but the stock levels are down. I think what is starting to happen is numbers will start coming back in spring like they usually do.”
His advice to anyone who has a well-presented home is to put it on the market now while there’s a lack of choice.
“Right across the spectrum whether it is a really nice family home, or a really nice apartment, or a townhouse, or a first home. It’s actually a really good time to hit the market right now and in the coming months as more stock comes on vendors are just going to find themselves in more competition.”
Amanda Stevens, business manager for Ben Stevens & the Team at Ray White, doesn’t think there’s is one particular reason for the significant shortage of stock, but says people could be holding off listing until after the election or waiting for the market to lift.
A "move in and enjoy" five-bedroom, three-bathroom home at 140 Woodman Drive, Tawa, saw 30 groups view it on the first week of being listed. Photo / Supplied
“They’ve read so much media hype and if you didn’t need to sell in what everyone is picking as the bottom of the market then why would you, unless you’ve got a genuine motivation to sell. You’re moving to Australia, you are moving cities or you are cashing up your investment because you’d rather have some liquid assets then why would you?”
The stock shortage is right across the board, she says, but good quality renovated homes are always in demand.
“People just don’t have a huge appetite for work, mostly because they can’t secure the additional lending to do it.”
A five-bedroom, three-bathroom property at 140 Woodman Drive, Tawa, which is one of these “move in and enjoy homes”, saw 33 people through the open home and four private viewings in the first week of being listed. It is going to auction on August 11.
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