March the month to move house

More than 1000 shifts a day are predicted based on analysis of rental and sales data

More New Zealanders are forecast to move house next month than at any other time this year, according to a survey which predicts more than 1000 residential shifts a day based on a three-year trend.

Kit Greer, chief executive of Kiwi business iMoved.me, has studied the past three years of house sale and rental bond data and found March is by far the busiest month, probably because of the end of the holiday season and good weather.

“It’s March moving madness,” said Greer, chief executive of the Auckland business that helps people update their contact details when they shift.

House sales information from the Real Estate Institute and bond data on rental properties from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment were used to measure shifting activity.

Last March, 9527 property sales were reported nationally, the highest number for any single month in 2016, Greer said. Similarly, 20,178 total bonds were recorded as being lodged, again the most for any one month.

He combined these figures to find activity on more than 800 properties being sold or rented nationally on each day in March in the past three years.

“Following the previous years’ trends (2014 was 800 shifts/day, 2015 was 878, 2016 was 958), March 2017 is set to tip over 1000 homes on average per day, moving around New Zealand, the highest in the last three years,” Greer said, adding that it was probably an all-time high.

“March has no national public holidays. Schools and unis are all back to their normal pace. It’s arguable that any big decisions to be made, like moving, will be made when work is more stable and the expensive Christmas break and holidays are over, budgets are repaired and finances are more predictable again. Universities also start their first semester and many move from home to be nearer to uni,” Greer said.

“Sales tend to be fairly consistent throughout the year from March to December, dropping off in December and taking time to build momentum back up in January and February. Rentals are the more fluctuating market where the differences can vary in the thousands between months.”

Although about 1000 property movements were expected a day next month, that could involve 2000 or more people a day, he said.

“I’ve just identified the numbers of properties, not the number of people which means the numbers would be much higher.”

Kiri Barfoot, a Barfoot & Thompson director, confirmed that March was the busiest of the year for her firm’s rentals and sales.

“It’s normally busier than February. January can be a bit of a writeoff because everyone’s going on holiday and there’s long weekends, so people are back by February and thinking, ‘Ah, I want to sell my house,’ so it’s probably March by the time it sells,” she said.

Rental inquiries could be strong in December, January and February but March was probably one of the agency’s busiest months, she said.

“We had one property in Epsom with over 1000 people wanting to look at it,” she said of a two-bedroom place going for $395 a week but in Epsom school zones.

Reinz chief executive Norwell confirmed the trend. Bindi