colinrealestate

To really make the most of a weekend property, it needs to be within convenient striking distance of your regular home.
Once a property is over one and a half hours from your residence, the chances of your enjoyment rapidly waning increase. In excess of two and a half hours and the odds really start to stack against you.
Make sure your chosen weekender destination at least has a General Store because there will be times when you arrive with little planning and if there are no shops, restaurants or other conveniences nearby, your weekender becomes much less workable over the long term.
Make sure the rural property you choose is low maintenance, otherwise you’ll spend your weekends doing nothing other than the normal tasks you’d be doing at home – just somewhere else!
Also consider security. An isolated weekender is a target for thieves whereas a home next door to permanent residents is far less likely to be broken into.
Weekenders don’t typically produce yields approaching those of other forms of property investment, even if you do plan to rent them short-term during peak holiday seasons. Most buyers simply hope to enjoy their get-away rural property and make a profit through capital gain when they sell.
If the land value breaks the land tax threshold, costs can really add up, given that your rural property weekender won’t be your principal place of residence

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

When buying your first home, your first step is working out how big a deposit you’ll need & then to saving hard.
1. Work out what you can afford to borrow and still live comfortably.
2. Get advice from a financial planner, friend or family member who has bought property before. Get as much advice as possible.
3. Don’t over commit. When buying your first home. Most people qualify for bigger loans than they can afford. Don’t fall into this trap. You’ll need adequate reserves to cover more than just mortgage repayments.
Start looking around once you have saved around 5 per cent of the purchase price and keep saving. The larger your deposit, the more manageable and less stressful your repayments will be.

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

Home prices have turned for the better, breaking the downward trend that was showing earlier this year.

May Quotable Value (QV) statistics indicate that for the past two months, average house prices have lifted nationally, with Auckland house prices jumping 13.1 per cent.

However, the rate at which prices are growing is slowing.

Growth peaked at 10 per cent last December but had fallen to 8.4 per cent by April. In May, this figure reduced again and now sits at 8.2 per cent – a respectable rate of growth nonetheless.

Nationally, after adjusting for inflation, home values are 12.1 per cent above the previous market peak in late 2007.

First National New Zealand Chairman, Bob Brereton indicates that while results have been mixed throughout New Zealand’s main centers, areas remain where prices are flat or falling.

‘First National is optimistic about property market conditions’ said Mr Brereton.

‘Levels of transactions as well as the length of time it takes to complete a sale show high levels of confidence amongst New Zealanders. However, price sensitivity remains the order of the day

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

REINZ House Prices – Down:
REINZ’s sales in March were down 10% on the same month the year before.

Interest Rates – Up:
Interest rates are creeping up.

OCR – Up:
Increases are expected at many, if not all, of the OCR announcements this year.

Immigration – Up:
Migration is at a 10 year high as more people move to NZ and fewer leave.

Building Consents – Neutral:
The trend of new houses has been increasing for almost 3 years but many centres have a way to go to make up for under-building.

Mortgage Approvals – Neutral:
Mortgage approval numbers are still down on the same time a year before, but not as sharply as they were earlier in the year.

Rents – Up:
Auckland’s rental inflation has increased to a 22mth high of 5.3%pa.

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

The monetary policy tightening is an experiment, which means New Zealand mortgage holders should not take big risks with their mortgage.

How fast interest rates increase is a guessing game. Homeowners need to minimise and spread risk to combat increases. You can take the increase in cost straight away by fixing your interest rate for a five to seven year period. The other option is to fix bit by bit over the next two to four year period by sitting on floating and short-term fixed. We think rates will go up 1% this year, 1% in 2015, which means floating rates could be at 8% in 2016.

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

New Zealand property values increased at the slowest annual pace in seven month in April. The annual increase to April moderated to 8.4% well-down on the peak in December of 10%. The latest annual rate of growth for April compares with 8.8% in March, 9.3% in February, 9.6% in January and December’s peak of 10%.

The national asking price of new listings eased in April. The seasonally adjusted asking price fell by 1.4% to $477,460. Auckland once again recorded a new record asking price of $685,426. Auckland prices are still up 13.9% on last year, which is a slightly lower growth rate than for the year to March (14.3%).

Across New Zealand 10 regions saw asking price increases. Tauranga has seen values increase 2.1% in the past three months and 4.8% year on year. The Wellington region is up 0.6% over the last three months. Christchurch has seen a decrease of 1% in property values. The majority of values in the provincial centres still remain below the previous highs of 2007. Nelson (5.3%) and New Plymouth (5.9%) are provincial centres that are up on sales values since 2007 peaks.

The government introduced the loan to value ratio on high debt lending to cool the housing market, last October. The figures released by the government valuer, Quotable Value, suggest that the Reserve Banks LVR lending limits are having an impact.

The Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Grant Spencer announced on May 8th that the ‘earliest’ timeframe to remove restrictions on low deposit lending will be later this year. Spencer said, “Before removing the LVRs, however, we will want to be confident that the housing market is responding to interest rate increases, and that immigration pressures are not causing a resurgence of house price pressures.”

Factors which lead to the introduction of the LVR, include rising immigration pressures on housing market levels. Current migration rates will see the country on track for an annual growth in net migration of 40,000, which would be close to record levels. Projected job losses and slowing economic growth predictions are expected with the news the Australian Federal Government will continue fiscal tightening, in an attempt to return to surplus. This may result in an increase in Trans-Tasman migration flows. Another influence on the slowdown is the Reserve Bank interest rate hike in March.

ASB economist Christina Leung said, “We expect nation-wide house prices will rise 5% in calendar 2014 – with Auckland still up 9% – which suggests the risks lie more with 2015 given that Auckland is the market getting the most focus from the RBNZ.
“We expect that migration flows will peak in the second half of this year.”

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

What can you do to gain that price you are seeking for your property?

Here are some helpful tips that you can start working on before you meet your agent to list for sale:
Mow the lawns
Tidy the garden and paint the letterbox
Repaint the interior areas which are tired, including cabinets and replace door handles Spruce up the bathroom with white paint, tapware and a new mirror
Replace or clean the carpet
Fix broken locks, handles and light fittings
Clean gutters and give your house and windows a clean

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

The predictions are yes! However, it is very difficult to predict, particularly a market such as Auckland and Christchurch, who are driven by a shortage of supply. There are also a lot of younger borrowers who have not seen the rises in interest rates seen by the baby boomers as the current rates we see only came into effect after the GFC.

There are five influences to remember; the first is that the LVR (loan-to-value rules) has taken some first home buyers from the market. Secondly, net migrants to New Zealand are booming and likely to remain strong over the next two years. Thirdly, the economy is picking up which will produce further employment and wage growth. Fourthly, building costs will rise with new home construction and finally demand from offshore buyers continues to grow.

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

World economies have welcomed news this week that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week cut the probability of a global recession this year from 6% to 0.1%. This sort of outlook is positive for the New Zealand economy in that it will underpin global willingness to invest in economies such as our own, also it will support our inward tourist flows, and will deliver some support also to our export commodity prices.

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »

The good news is 7,315 dwellings were sold last month, an increase of 19.4% on February but still 10% down when compared to March last year.

A new national record high median price was reached at $440,000 – an increase of $44,000. Auckland and Canterbury/Westland recorded new high median prices of $637,000 and $401,000, respectively.

A healthy increase in Auckland listings helped increase the inventory of homes for sale last month. The stock levels are now sitting at 28 weeks compared to March 2013, and an increase of $25,000 from February.

There is strong growth in the Auckland, Canterbury and Waikato/Bay of Plenty regions. Early reports are coming in of property market growth from Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu/Wanganui and Otago – all regions where the market has been subdued.

The days to sell for the month of March, were the shortest at 27 days to sell in Canterbury/Westland; followed by Otago at 29 days, Auckland at 31 days, and Wellington at 32 days. Northland recorded the longest number of days to sell at 71 days, followed by Manawatu/Wanganui with 56 days and Central Otago Lakes with 53 days. Over the past 10 years the median days to sell for the month of March has averaged 35 days across New Zealand.

Filed under: REAL ESTATE  | | No Comments »