September Market Commentary

A huge 69 sales for Kerikeri and surrounds (inside the Kerikeri High School zone) in September sets a new record for any one month. This high number of sales was driven primarily by increased interest in bare land and lifestyle properties (land size above 1 hectare). This brings the number of unconditional property sales in the area for 2016 to 390 compared with 353 for the same time last year or just over a 10% increase.

High performing sectors are bare land with 95 sales in 2016, up 70% from 2015. This excludes unrecorded Kerikeri sales of land on developments that are awaiting title issue.

Also the volume of sales for homes over $800,000 is up 250% from 2015. There were 23 sales above $1million compared with only 7 by this time last year.

The number of sales for houses priced below $450,000 has halved since 2015 due to low stock levels. Entry level prices have reached a level in Kerikeri where there are fewer and fewer houses to be found under $450,000.

The median house price for the area in 2016 is now $560,000 ($580,000 for July through September) up from $490,000 in 2015.

Strong enquiry continues across all sectors of the market with diminishing stock levels resulting in higher prices being achieved. Developers are starting to show interest in investing in the area with the likelihood of better returns than in recent years.