Editorial: Housing boom is good news

Sales volumes for properties in Hastings are up by 23 percent. Photo / Paul Taylor.

There is certainly something happening in our housing market at the moment.

It is starting to heat up and that can only be good for the region.

The latest REINZ figures show that seventy-five per cent more Napier houses sold in August than in August 2014. The region as a whole recorded a sales volume increase of 49 per cent, while Hastings was up 23 per cent.

However, even though more houses are selling, Hawke's Bay median price fell 2 per cent to $285,000 compared with August 2014. Napier fell 7.4 per cent to $306,500 offsetting Hastings' 4.8 per cent rise to $275,000.

The reason is that the houses selling are at the lower end of the market.

In our story in today's paper, Cox Partners director Malcolm Cox said this was because investors were active, some from outside the region, and competing with first-home buyers taking advantage of government incentives.

Increasingly, I am hearing more and more stories of Aucklanders either deciding to relocate to the provinces and making a huge profit on their houses, or Auckland investors buying properties to rent out.

Either way, it is good for our region. We want the growth and stimulation this brings. If Aucklanders are, as it would appear they are, moving down to live in Hawke's Bay, then it can only improve our skill base.

Some people take the attitude that they don't want the influx of new people coming from the big cities, as it would spoil it for the rest of us. This is quite short-sighted as we want a buoyant economy and the way to achieve that is with more people bringing skills and job-creation here.