NEWS RELEASE
Harcourts Notes Buyers Who Delayed Could Be Feeling Disappointed
Assessing nationwide property prices achieved by Harcourts over the last 12 months, CEO Bryan Thomson noted in the
latest issue of Harcourts MarketWatch newsletter that, “Those who took the advice of ‘investment experts’ last year and
delayed buying due to predicted price falls in real estate must be feeling more than a little disappointed with their
advisors at present!”
Mr Thomson confirmed while Harcourts offices throughout New Zealand in May shared a number of trends, the most
consistent was the ongoing significant increase in average price levels in property compared to the same month last
year.
Throughout the country, those increases ranged from at the very least 16% in Harcourts Northern and Central regions, to
the high of 29% in the Harcourts Wellington region. “This shows that demand remains solid in almost all markets for good
quality and well located properties.”
In terms of actual number of property sales written, May 2005 was just below May 2004 apart from two areas. Provincial
South Island enjoyed a far better month than May 2004 clearly displaying the ongoing confidence in the area, while Mr
Thomson noted that the lower number of written sales in Christchurch was more of a reflection of a stunning May 2004
than a poor May 2005 as Christchurch had been a consistent high achiever for some time.
In conclusion Mr Thomson said, “Taking all this into account, we believe these statistics reinforce our long-held
predictions for 2005 of a solid and consistent market at present levels where both buyers and sellers can feel
comfortable and confident in making decisions for both today and the future.”
…ends