Market responds to the home office
Online property searches show many of us are looking for houses with more bedrooms so we can work from home more easily.
Just look around the office and it’s easy to see the whole idea of working from home has taken root.
But while bums on seats are down, most often productivity is not. Successive Covid-19 lockdowns and level changes have acclimatised many of us to a ‘‘new norm’’, and we quite like it. Or perhaps, more accurately, we really like having the flexibility to work from home or the office.
So, it’s not unexpected to see Google Trends reports showing that the term ‘‘work from home’’ was searched by more New Zealanders than ever during March, when the entire country went into lockdown level 4. And Google reports searches are still up on the same time last year.
There is a spin-off. Recent statistics from realestate.co.nz show that visitors to the site are now looking for properties with more bedrooms – searches for homes with four or five bedrooms are up on the same time last year.
Nationally, users looking for houses with four or more bedrooms increased by 31.6 per cent while users looking for five or more bedrooms increased by 29.5 per cent.
The website says in Auckland (which has had not just one, but two lockdowns), the trend is even more marked. Users looking for four or more bedrooms increased by 49.6 per cent while those looking for five or more bedrooms increased 43.9 per cent.
Vanessa Taylor, spokesperson for realestate. co. nz, says she is hearing anecdotally from agents, that Kiwis are wanting more space to better accommodate family and work commitments.
‘‘ Covid- 19 has taught us unpredictability and flexibility.
People are reassessing their work and home life. For those who are fortunate to be able to work from home, we are seeing a shift in how they see their home.’’
Taylor says while open-plan living has been an important requirement in the past, there is now a shift towards ‘‘separateness’’, with people wanting to be able to work away from each other. Having an extra bedroom provides this space.
‘‘One agent I was just talking to said all those three-bedroom houses that have an extra nook or cranny, or a small room that could be an office space, are flying off the shelves as fast as a full four-bedroom home.’’
Trade Me Property spokesperson Logan Mudge says the website has also noticed an increase in search numbers.
‘‘In September we saw a 22 per cent increase in demand for three- to four-bedroom properties for sale when compared to the
year prior,’’ he says. ‘‘And houses for sale with five or more bedrooms saw a 17 per cent increase in demand, while one- to two-bedroom houses saw a 16 per cent jump.’’
Realestate.co.nz figures show an extra bedroom does not come cheap. The average price for a thee-bedroom home nationally in September was $695,212, rising to $975,546 for four bedrooms and $1,361,212 for five bedrooms.
In Auckland, the average three-bedroom house was $ 934,076, rising to $ 1,232,540 for four bedrooms and $1,618,124 for a five-bedroom house.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Reinz) says the number of residential properties sold in September jumped by 37.1 per cent from a year earlier to 8377, the most sold in New Zealand for more than three years.
Three quarters of homes sold in September went for more than $ 500,000 for the first time on record, and the country’s median house price rose 14.7 per cent from a year earlier to a new record of $685,000.
The five-bedroom house in Beachlands featured here, marketed by Barfoot & Thompson, goes to auction on November 3, 2020.