Real estate sales drop expected
‘‘During level 2, we can do open homes together. It has lots of restrictions that we are geared up to handle.’’
Bill Highet
Real estate sales in South Canterbury have been hit hard by alert levels 4 and 3.
Data released yesterday by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Reinz) shows nine houses were sold in the region in April compared to 53 during the same period in 2019.
Eight homes changed hands in the Timaru district, one in Waimate and no sales were made in the Mackenzie.
Reinz ambassador for Timaru Julian Blanchard said the effect of the lockdown had seen the real estate market, like many other sectors, experience a reduction in activity.
He said getting eight sales in Timaru was better than expected.
‘‘A low number of sales for the month was expected given the lockdown and we expect that the number of sales will also be lower for May than normal.
‘‘The median price is still around the normal levels [$335,000] over the last few years, and we do not expect a dramatic reduction on prices as the local economy looks well prepared to come out of the alert levels with cautious optimism.’’
Blanchard said the safety of buyers and sellers was most important and measures were put in place to ensure this during levels 4 and 3.
Property Brokers chief executive Bill Highet said level 2 would bring better tidings to the real estate industry.
‘‘Obviously it was a major challenge to not be able to do things like appraisals and viewing of property during the level 4 stage and then very limited viewings during level 3.
‘‘During level 2, we can do open homes together. It has lots of restrictions that we are geared up to handle.’’
Highet said the property management section of the business was equally challenging during levels 3 and 4 as inspections could not be done and the difficulty people experienced to move in and out of rented properties.
‘‘Our [Property Brokers’] real estate transactions dropped by about 80 per cent during that period and are now starting to climb back up, and we are optimistic business will hopefully return to normal reasonably soon.’’
Highet said Property Brokers has about 30 people working in Timaru, Waimate and Geraldine.
‘‘We’ve got a very stable work force in South Canterbury who are coping well.
‘‘Jobs will be affected. Obviously people in real estate are self-employed and they wake up every morning unemployed and go out there and do deals so some of those have been impacted quite badly through the crisis.’’
Like a lot of industries, real estate agents have found the going tough, but there are industries in much worse situations resulting in new recruits in real estate, Highet said.
‘‘Nationally, during lockdown period, we had 21 more sales people join us. A lot of those are people from other industries.’’
‘‘Some have decided it’s time to try a new career, and we’ve been supporting those people by giving them training and getting their qualifications.’’
He said the industry was gathering as much information as it could to prepare for any collapse the market might encounter in the near future, but it could also present an opportunity for property investors.
‘‘Clearly there will be a bit of a recession for the whole country.
‘‘What that means in terms of real estate is kind of too early to say."