Kerikeri is still an attractive destination for buyers.

Living in a smaller community has many benefits. Simple behaviours like a smile from a passer-by, saying G’day in the street and supporting one another in times of trouble. Over the past few months, several members of our team have been working to organize “The REAL House Tour”,  a charity event to benefit Hospice Mid Northland.  Part of this work involved soliciting others to offer their assistance, some as volunteers; some agreeing to open their homes for the tour; others providing items for auction and raffles; and many others providing goods and services for the event itself.  Virtually everyone approached agreed without hesitation. The generosity of the businesses and people of Kerikeri was astounding.

This is the type of place we live in. The place we are proud to call home.

On the day over $30,000 was raised, funds that Hospice really need to continue their valuable free service to our communities in the Far North. (Government fund less than 43% of monies required.)  At REAL, we are all very honoured to be aligned with Hospice. We hear so many stories from the community of their passionate commitment to caring and providing dignity to those who are in their final days of life and support for their families. Our team has contributed over $150,000 from their incomes since we started our support at the beginning of 2021. We encourage other people and businesses to help wherever they can. A life without Hospice’s services would be unimaginable and their caring is something many of us will most likely need at some point in the future.

Now what else has been happening in our local property market and is it still behaving differently than other major centres as reported last month? The short answer is “yes, it is”. So here are the facts.

Median house prices are still holding up despite further drops in other parts of Northland and most parts of the rest of the country. The question is will this continue or is this a lag on trends in other markets around the country. The truth is we still don’t really know. The number of homes for sale, or inventory, has increased only slightly in the past few months. This suggests properties are turning over at a rate not dissimilar to the rate they are coming onto the market. However, we typically get a Spring rush of new listings over the next few months which could create more competition between vendors. We have been encouraging our clients to “beat the rush” if they have plans to move.

The median house sales price (on a quarterly moving average basis**) increased 12% from August 2021 compared with a drop of 4.2% for the same period in the Auckland region and a drop of 0.6% for all New Zealand. Kerikeri prices are just above their peak level versus a 12.4% drop in the Auckland region and a drop of 9.3% for all New Zealand. Kerikeri median prices are the closest to Auckland median prices in many years and are up 46% from 3 years prior. Other markets around the country that appear to be holding their prices are also smaller attractive towns like Arrowtown, Cambridge and Raglan. It is possible that our smaller number of sales is skewing these results due to a recent trend towards sales in higher price brackets so we will be watching this more closely over following months.

The median days to sell is now up to 58 days which is around our average level for the last 10 years.

Bare land:

The volume of bare land sales is still much lower than prior years. There is some light on the horizon with news that the rate of rising construction costs may be slowing and that materials and consents are getting easier to come by. We have a historically low supply of sections, so we have not seen a great deal of discounting from developers to this point.

There were 4 more sales recorded in August 2022 than in August 2021. 5 sales were between $1.5million and $2 million helping to ease the pressure on rising inventory in this bracket. This brought the volume of total property sold this year through August 31st to 29% down from the same period in 2021. This is better than the 33% lower comparison of year-on-year sales levels last month. We will need a few more months of data to see if this is a turning point or not.

Buyers:

This month saw both local buyers and buyers from other markets who have sold or have serious interest in their homes. Enquiry has been reasonably consistent, but buyers tend to be waiting until their homes are selling before making their moves. Interestingly, we have worked with a few people from around Puhoi and Warkworth and wonder if the pending completion of the motorway extension is pushing some of the current residents to look to live further out. Our typical feeder markets, Wellington, and Auckland, continue to show even lower median prices and lower sales volume. First time home buyers appear to be ramping up their purchases in other centres. How these various forces impact our market over the next year is unknown, but experience tells us there are always reasons people need to move and therefore buy and sell homes in any market.

Our office recorded another 10 sales in July and had 37% of the total residential sales recorded in Greater Kerikeri for August. Through collaboration, sharing workloads and helping each other, we increased our share of the residential sales recorded in Kerikeri this year to 36%. This continues our unbeaten record of producing the highest number of residential sales in Kerikeri, year in and year out, for nearly 20 years.

If you want to find out more about how our unique, high-performance system can help you achieve your property goals please give us a call or pop into our office anytime. We would be glad to show you around and make you a coffee while you are here.

*Greater Kerikeri approximated the Kerikeri High School enrolment zone and includes Waipapa, Doves Bay Peninsula, Inlet Road Peninsula, Kapiro, Waimate North Road and branch roads, Wiroa Rd and branch roads, Pungaere Rd and branch roads,  Puketotara Rd and branch roads, Waipapa West Road and branch roads, Takau Bay.

**We use quarterly moving averages as these mitigate some of the wild monthly variation that occurs when reporting monthly medians on smaller number of sales.