Demand for housing is outstripping supply
Taranaki asking prices have hit a 13-year high as demand for housing outstrips supply, according to the realestate.co.nz.
The realestate.co.nz revealed that record-low stock levels have resulted in a record-high asking price in Taranaki of $529,769 last month, up by 20.4% compared to September 2019.
“Rateable value never really equated to market value. Some in the higher end are selling, in some cases, slightly below rateable value. It depends what maintenance has been done on the property or no maintenance, what condition the property is in, it's all relative,” said the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) Taranaki spokesman Garry Malcolm, as reported by Stuff.
Realestate.co.nz also reported 265 properties for sale in Taranaki on September 29, a dramatic drop compared to nearly 400 homes at the same time last year. Other regions also face the same situation, with Lower Hutt seeing only 154 houses for sale earlier this week.
“During the lockdown, many people decided that in these uncertain times, although money is very cheap at the moment to borrow, rather than go and borrow bigger amounts of money, let's do an alteration on our current house or redecorate it. And more people are coming into the district from out of town,” Malcolm said.
McDonald Real Estate general manager Daniel McDonald commented that it was “not uncommon” for homes to hit $100,000 over GV.
“The big bottleneck – I would have said under $500,000 – but now under $600,000, from $350,000 to $600,000. It's just a massive lack of stock for the demand. There are lots of people yet to come home, lots of people are coming from Auckland. We've got a lot of room for growth,” he said.
Harcourts Hāwera sale consultant Simon Bendall added: “I mean anything we list is generally going to multi-offer, and vendors are getting premiums anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 over the asking price or even more in some cases.”
