Homes sell as buyers shrug off lockdown

Houses are still being sold under lockdown in Marlborough with virtual house tours helping to seal the deal, although new owners must wait at least three more weeks to move in.

Most of the buying and selling can be done with just a good internet connection, although physically moving house is not considered an essential service.

First National Marlborough sales manager Angela Bowers said the team had sold two properties since lockdown started, with another into contract and a fourth into settlement.

‘‘We’re still getting lots of people saying they want to buy and sell,’’ Bowers said.

‘‘The pandemic hasn’t suddenly killed buyer interest. It’s just changed the way we do business,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s a bit like Christmas – except at Christmas everything shuts, no lawyers are working. Right now we can still do all that remotely, with modern technology.’’

First National had invested in a Matterport 3D camera several months ago, which now allowed them to upload a virtual house tour onto a property’s online listing.

‘‘People can walk through the property, and wonder, what does it look like through that window, or where does that door go? The fact we invested in that innovation a while ago is now proving very, very valuable.’’

Marlborough had just 230 homes listed for sale in March, another all-time low according to figures from realestate.co.nz, which has records back to 2007.

The lack of listings was a continued trend due to the region’s housing shortage, with February also recording a record low for Marlborough, in line with national shortages.

Spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said the country simply did not have enough houses to meet the demand from the increasing population.

‘‘It remains important for us to look at how we can scale up building activity and build modern, high-density homes for New Zealanders.’’

The dip in listings showed people ‘‘hit pause’’ on selling their homes at the end of March, with the monthly total down 16.5 per cent on March last year.

However, people were spending longer on the realestate.co.nz website than ever before, with the average session lasting more than nine minutes, up from seven earlier this year, Taylor said.

‘‘Buyers will be spending even more time researching online before viewing in person, so listings will likely become even more important over the next few weeks.’’

Bowers said the lockdown had prompted many people to consider how their home met their needs, and it was a great time for people selling to get their home noticed.

‘‘People are wondering, can they see themselves quarantined in this place for a long period? Maybe they actually want a change; a bigger place, or a smaller place, or downsize the mortgage with all the financial pressure.’’ Others were using the time to spruce up their property to prepare it for sale, she said.

‘‘Time is on your side here. It’s a good time if you’re housebound to do things around the house, tidy up, do some maintenance work. Bunnings and Mitre 10 might be shut but there’s lots of other jobs you can do.’’