What’s Next for the Auckland Market?
What a year in real estate! Property prices have certainly taken a hit, pretty much across the board, but we have still had plenty of success with sales, particularly by auction. In fact our last three auctions last year all had between 5 and 8 registered bidders and sold well above reserve. It seems that good properties continue to sell well, but if there are any fish hooks, then buyers will be very wary.
Will this continue into this year? Well, it sounds like we may have a pretty slow start to the year with the prospect of more mortgage rate increases likely to keep a bit of a lid on prices. The economists are all predicting a flat market for at least the first 6 months of the year, with some predicting further price falls before things improve.
The biggest change we have seen in the past few months has been a significant drop in properties coming to the market compared to previous years. This of course may help to keep prices steady - after all, it’s all about supply and demand.
Should buyers be out looking now? We’ve said before it’s a fool’s game trying to pick the bottom of the market.
What we have seen in previous property cycles is that once buyers decide that the market has bottomed out, there is a sudden rush of people wanting to secure property before prices start increasing. As soon as this sentiment appears in the market things change fast!
And remember, if you are buying to hold, even for just two years, you are almost certain to see an increase in your property’s value.