‘Chasing rainbows'
Home buyers getting fussy while vendors seek ‘Lotto win' sales
Home buyers “are chasing rainbows” and expecting “champagne on a beer budget” while vendors want a “Lotto win” for selling their property.
That’s the view of Professionals Rotorua Mcdowell Real Estate principal and auctioneer Steve Lovegrove, who says inflated expectations are slowing activity in the market.
It comes as latest data shows nationally the number of first-home buyers getting on the property ladder is increasing as banks offer cashbacks of up to $5000 for people getting their first mortgage.
“Buyers are beginning to understand it is a buyer’s market. If they find something they like and they miss out . . . they are much more confident than we’ve seen for the last few years that they will potentially find something else,” Lovegrove said.
However, some prospective buyers were “chasing rainbows” as there was no urgency to decide.
“They will then distract themselves and run off and look for another one. They’re just sitting in a holding pattern of shopping.”
Buyers were also often reluctant to borrow a lot of money as they did not want the pressure of having to meet high repayments.
“So, they look for a smarter purchase because they’re trying to find . . . the champagne home on the beer budget.”
Vendors were also competing and Lovegrove said they were reluctant to accept that.
“Of course, they’re all looking for a Lotto win on selling their property. If people are reselling the properties they bought three or four years ago, they could still be looking at making a loss on that sale.
“The best property at the right price is always going to win.”
He predicted the market would change later in the year.
“We’ll see the turnover and the churn start to happen more rapidly later this year or next year.”
First National Rotorua principal Ann Crossley said feedback from her salespeople was that buyers, including first-home buyers, had become “very fussy”.
“They have got no urgency as they have a bigger selection to look at, so they are going ‘I don’t like this one, I’ll just wait for the next one to come on’.”
She said on one occasion a person had put an offer on a property and the bank had come back and said the offer was too high.
“I think stock levels will continue to build. I think things will happen as the Government unwinds some of that landlord tax policy and the landlords will come back into the market. At that point, I think things will start to move along again.
“Whether that is six months, nine months or 12 months away, I think that will be the thing that unchokes the market.”
Crossley said although interest rates were reasonably high, “now is a perfect time for first-home buyers”.
“I think the market’s bottomed out and it is consolidating now.”
New Zealand Home Loans Rotorua owner Sally Copeland said the cost of living, interest rates, and house prices had made it challenging.
“However, we’re hearing stories of
Warren Koberstein’s sheep were emaciated, in pain and at the point of dying. Some couldn’t stand and had their eyes pecked out by hawks. His cattle were starving.
Many of his animals had to be destroyed to end their suffering.
A jury has found a Mangakino farmer with more than 40 years’ experience guilty of a majority of the animal cruelty charges he was accused of, following a three-week Rotorua District Court trial.
After just over a day of deliberating, on Friday the jury returned 11 guilty verdicts, three not guilty verdicts, and couldn’t decide on one charge.
Among the serious charges was he wilfully ill-treated 33 sheep that had to be destroyed to end their pain and distress. He was also found guilty of charges relating to failing to ensure proper and sufficient food for 834 pregnant sheep, 86 cattle and 32 heifers.
Other charges related to sheep that were found cast with their eyes gone, one that had a deformed neck and wasn’t able to eat properly and another that had an injured foot and was moving around the paddock on its knuckle.
The three charges he was found not guilty of related to three sheep in total, including two charges alleging he wilfully ill-treated a sheep and one charge that he recklessly illtreated a sheep.
The jury couldn’t decide on one charge that he recklessly ill-treated a cow by failing to ascertain whether a cow that had fallen into a tomo was alive, resulting in the cow suffering unreasonable or unnecessary pain or distress.
The charges stemmed from a Ministry for Primary Industries notification in July 2019 after an alarm was raised by Koberstein’s vet about the condition of animals on the farm.
Animal welfare inspectors found dead and dying animals. A large portion of stock had a body-weight condition below the ideal rating of 5 — with many found to have ratings of 0 to 2.
The jury was shown videos of injured or deformed sheep and a heifer lying at the bottom of a tomo, unable to move.
It was the Crown’s case Koberstein was worried about his “bottom line”
and it saw him have animals that were “malnourished, emaciated and at the point of death” following chronic underfeeding and overstocking farming practices.
Prosecutor Anna Mcconachy, who was assisted by Kris Bucher, said the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to animals that were starving and dying painfully.
Mcconachy said Koberstein was aware of the issues but did not take reasonable steps to help them.
Mcconachy produced evidence Koberstein had been warned about his farming practices by the ministry four times since 2000 and was formally put on notice that his animals fell below minimum standards.
The Crown was also able to tell the jury Koberstein had been found guilty of previous offending relating to animal cruelty in 2018 — which formed part of the Crown’s argument that Koberstein knew what was required of him by law.
Mcconachy pointed out to the jury in her closing address that when Koberstein took the stand in his defence, he disagreed with “almost everything” during evidence, including body scoring results and opinions of vets and farm consultants.
He also claimed one consultant was “an idiot” and refused to hand over a report to the ministry the consultant had written about Koberstein’s farming practices.
Mcconachy said Koberstein disagreed with his 2018 conviction despite an unsuccessful appeal.
It was Koberstein’s defence he was working seven days a week farming through drought conditions in 2019 and he did the best he could.
Koberstein’s lawyer, Fletcher Pilditch, pointed to the difference between having production animals and domesticated pets and described his client as exactly what you’d expect from a farmer of 40-plus years.
Pilditch said in his closing address Koberstein was the type of man who “called a spade a spade” and conceded that during his evidence he would “get off topic” at times.
“At times he could be a bit curmudgeonly . . . maybe a bit belligerent. He’s everything you’d expect a farmer who has survived 40 years
on a farm to be.”
After the jury delivered their verdicts on Friday, Judge Tony Snell allowed Koberstein to leave the courtroom on continued bail.
As Koberstein walked out, he stood before two Ministry of Primary Industries inspectors sitting in the public gallery and stared at them before leaving.
He will be sentenced on May 22.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
At times he could be a bit curmudgeonly.
Lawyer Fletcher Pilditch. ,