Banks and real estate agents seek property valuations in numbers the same as last year
Sales activity is recovering rapidly after the COVID-19 lockdown, with banks and real estate agents seeking property valuations in numbers the same as last year.
Quotable Value (QV)'s latest data revealed that the number of sales in April 2020 dropped by 80% compared to April 2019, while that in May dropped by 45% compared to the same month last year. It has not yet determined the volume of sales in June, but activity in the valuations industry showed that sales activity is recovering rapidly across New Zealand.
“[it is] starting to feel like definite levels of normality are beginning to return to the housing market,” said Nick Goodall, the head of research at QV's parent company CoreLogic, as reported by Stuff.
“We're still processing the sales volume data. We don't know how many sales have occurred in June, but we think levels will be pretty close to being back to normal,” he continued. “The number of valuations done by banks and appraisals done by real estate agents are back to normal levels.”
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The QV report also revealed a 0.2% drop in house prices across New Zealand in June, with Queenstown taking the hardest fall at 2.1%. On the bright side, some areas such as Christchurch and Tauranga still saw an increase in house prices – up by 0.2%.
Government economic support, record-low interest rates, and mortgage holidays prevented forced sales and cushioned house prices, said Goodall.
As a result, Dunedin's average house value at the end of June hit 18.9% higher than the same period last year, while that in Wellington was 10.4% higher. The average Auckland house value at the end of June remained at $1.08 million, while that in Christchurch was $518,639.
