House prices hit half-million milestone

It could be the perfect time to sell your home after the average asking price for properties in Marlborough jumped above $500,000, according to figures released by realestate.co.nz.

The average asking price has increased by 8.9 per cent since February 2018, from $463,730 to $504,476 in March.

Marlborough has been named among the top five ‘‘hot regions’’ in the New Zealand property market, behind Gisborne and Northland.

Realestate.co.nz spokesperson Vanessa Taylor said New Zealand was a ‘‘seller’s market’’, and Marlborough properties were in hot demand.

Taylor said a lot of interest in properties in the region was coming from potential buyers in Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury.

The most popular demographic of people looking at Marlborough homes were females between 55-64 years-of-age.

‘‘It’s very heavily skewed towards the older bracket. I would argue that perhaps Aucklanders, Wellingtonians and Cantabrians are looking for a sunny place to retire,’’ she said.

The areas of Marlborough attracting the most interest from out-of-towners were Blenheim Central, Picton and the Marlborough Sounds.

Bayleys Marlborough general manager David Lee thought Marlborough was sitting in somewhere between a seller’s and buyer’s market.

‘‘I’d say it’s 50/50 sellers and buyers [market],’’ he said.

He said it was better to take a long-term look at how Marlborough was performing, as opposed to month-on-month, in order to get a better understanding.

‘‘We really need to look at the long-term average and when we look at that increase over the past 12 months in Marlborough has been about five per cent,’’ he said.

Lee said the property market was being driven by confidence in the region’s economy.

‘‘I think it comes down to the strength of the economy in the region so employment is very strong here ... people are feeling more confident about making the real estate move, upgrading. They feel secure in their employment,’’ he said.