BNZ-REINZ Residential Market Survey – Tony Alexander
Fewer first home buyers but it remains a seller's market with rising prices.
Welcome to the August BNZ-REINZ Residential Market Survey Results
New subscribers can be added to the emailing list here.
The full pdf is attached and here .
The 253 licensed real estate agents who responded in our survey this month have noted a falling away of first home
buyers in the market but still strongly rising prices and an over-whelming perception that it is a seller’s market
throughout most, but not all, of New Zealand. In contrast with the previous two months when agents noted a falling away
of potential vendors asking for valuations, this month there has been an improvement, but only to a net 0%. Our BNZ
Business Survey contained over two pages of responses from people in the residential real estate sector telling us that
listings are scarce however and getting scarcer.
Perhaps the result which stands out most this survey is the record low net 18% of agents reporting that they are seeing
more first home buyers in the market. Perhaps rules for high loan to value lending have already been tightened by banks
ahead of official policy implementation by the Reserve Bank.
This month we also asked what agents thought young buyers would do to get around such rules. Overwhelmingly the
expectation is that they will get money, guarantees, or direct equity participation from parents. The second highest
expected option is extra finance from second tier (more expensive) lenders.
All the best
Tony Alexander produces six regular publications.
The quarterly Growing With China issues arehere.
The quarterly Brain Gain NZ can be located here.
The Weekly Overviews are loaded here.
The monthly BNZ-REINZ Residential Market Surveys are posted here.
The monthly BNZ Confidence Surveys are available here.
The monthly BNZ-Nine Rewards Consumer Trends Survey is here.
Tony Alexander
Chief Economist