The last sixteen months have been tough work for buyers. Turning up to open homes five minutes early only to find half of Wellington is already there. You’ve been dropping off your tender to find the box is already full. Agonising over what figure to offer only to find out that you were 150K off the final sale price. If you haven’t been successful over this period and are on the verge of giving up, don’t! Here’s why.
We are entering a stage in the market where prices are beginning to plateau. Tighter lending, less competition and more stock means that other buyers don’t have to blow the competition out of the water in order to secure their dream home. As a buyer, you should take advantage of this situation. You have invested a lot of time developing a good knowledge of the market so use it. Once you withdraw, it takes time again to build this knowledge back up. If you are thinking perhaps ‘I will wait for values to drop’, you will be waiting a while. Even in the global financial crisis, we saw very little backwards movement in Wellington. Our rule of thumb is: there is no better time to buy than today. I bet the buyers we are still seeing one year on at our open homes are thinking the same thing.
As a vendor it can seem a little flat coming to the market, as the media turn to better news stories and the interest levels return to historical levels. The good news is that your property has already factored in the growth of the last sixteen months. So although you may not be the lucky recipient of a big offer, your home’s value is significantly more than it was six months ago.
The Wellington Market
Unless you are a deep sleeper it was hard to miss the big shake back on November 14. The quake has made it harder for purchasers to buy property because the main insurance companies have placed an embargo on all new policies. Without the insurance, the banks don’t lend. To counter this we looked to the post Christchurch situation which allowed the transfer of the existing policy from vendor to new home owner.
While this might not be ideal, it is a way to get around the issue. Over the past two weeks we have negotiated this process successfully on a number of occasions. In more positive news, residential dwellings held up very well overall with the gold medal award winner for construction style going to light timber framed homes.
As mentioned above, the market has started to plateau which will see days on the market drift out a little and month on month growth easing as we return to a more balanced market.
Wellington Market Quick Facts
Average sale price by area:
December Facts
Given all the shaking we’ve had to endure this month, we thought we’d take a look into the history of earthquakes.
Did you know?
- The first recorded earthquake in 1769 was felt by a group of explorers camping near Los Angeles, Calif
- That same year, at least four other earthquakes were recorded
- The largest recorded earthquake in the world was a magnitude 9.5 in Chile on 22 May 1960
- The first seismograph was invented in 132 AD by the Chinese astronomer and mathematician Chang Heng. He called it an “earthquake weathercock
- New Zealand’s biggest recorded earthquake was in 1855 when the Wairarapa Fault moved about 15 metres sideways and about 6 metres vertically
