“It’s not all doom and gloom”: The property market outlook for Tararua District

Dannevirke is still an attractive place to live due to its affordable house prices. Photo / Leanne Warr

Property sales in the Tararua District have slowed, but it’s not all doom and gloom, says one agency.

PGG Wrightson branch manager Bec Adie said they were probably only seeing about a third of the sales per month they would normally see.

Well-presented, well-priced properties were still selling, just taking longer. Photo / Leanne Warr

“Well-presented, well-priced properties [are] still selling, but they are taking a bit longer to sell.”

She said she had seen the market decline a little bit, but it was starting to level out.

“I wouldn’t say it’s all doom and gloom. People always need to purchase property. Circumstances change. There’s always going to be people wanting to come to Dannevirke.”

Prices were still good despite drops in other regions.

Adie said the median sale price for Dannevirke for the year prior to December 2022 was $415,000, but it was currently at $472,000.

Three years ago, the median price was $273,000.

She said the median number of days to sell in December was 45, but in December 2021 it only took an average of 14 days to sell, and there were double the sales.

“When you look at it as a whole like that, they’re not that disappointing. The market’s just a lot slower than it was. It’s gone back to a typical market, where [it used to take] two or three months to sell a property.”

Adie said there were fewer investors, but there were also still first-home buyers.

She said it was a little bit harder to get them “over the line”.

“I’d always reiterate to people [that] if they’re thinking of buying, go and see a mortgage broker.”

PGG Wrightson regional sales manager Wayne Brooks said over the past two years, the Government had been trying to influence the market to try to trigger it down.

He said interest rates going up had been the catalyst, and building costs had also affected the market.

“Due to the shortage of materials, costs have increased massively.”

Brooks said a lot of homeowners had got a fright around reinsuring their homes, specifically in insuring for replacement.

He said the costs were also what was making people turn back to buying established homes rather than building a new home.

Tararua District Council figures show that for the year from February 2021 to end of January 2022, there were a total of 498 consent applications received, which included all consents.

In the last 12 months, since February 2022, that number had dropped to 413.

Harcourts Dannevirke owner Heatha Edwards said she was still getting enquiries and buyers were looking at moving to Dannevirke from all over the country.

“Dannevirke proves itself to be an attractive place to live and work, with affordable prices when you compare them to city living.”

She said the market was constantly moving, and she had seen a constant decline over the last 12 months compared to values 12 months ago.

It was still not easy for buyers, who were now faced with much higher interest rates on top of stricter bank criteria, which Edwards said had seriously shrunk buying power.

“After 29 years selling real estate, no matter what the market is doing, there are always people wanting to buy and wanting to sell property, and I suspect savvy clients with cheap fixed mortgage rates due to expire will be looking at their options and considering downsizing to avoid any extra financial stress.”