Agents say the property market is slowly, but surely, improving.
Hawke’s Bay real estate agents say for the first time in a while there is a window in the property market for first-home buyers to enter.
Tremains central region general manager Stuart Christensen said he felt lower house prices and lower interest levels caused by rising mortgage interest rates had created an opportunity.
“When the market does turn again, it will happen really quickly. But right now, I think first-home buyers have a window to get there,” Christensen said.
The QV House Price Index showed New Zealand’s average house prices last year suffered the largest fall in 15 years.
Hastings house prices dropped 13.4 per cent, and there was an 11.6 per cent fall in Napier, both in the top five biggest regional price drops nationwide.
Pam and Jeremy Ballantyne are retired teachers from Central Hawke’s Bay, who have lived in their Westshore cottage for the past decade. Now they want a more permanent home by the sea.
“We love this house. It’s in great condition and very handy. We enjoy living in Westshore. It would be better to have a more permanent house,” said Pam Ballantyne.
Pam and Jeremy Ballantyne look for a home in Westshore.
Nearby residents Richard Smith and Sue Eckhold are also looking for something special.
“It’s a very nice house,” said Smith. “Westshore is a nice place to be. We’re looking for somewhere to put a boat. Just keep an eye on things.”
Many buyers are nervous, preferring to wait and see what the property market will do.
Stuart Christensen said turnout at open homes was reduced.
Christensen said there is a lot of competition in today’s market.
“The numbers of buyers coming through for inspections are less. We’re not getting 20 or 30 buyers at open homes anymore.”
Sue Walters, from Property Brokers, has been in the industry for over 15 years. Last year, she and her business partner sold nearly 90 properties, down on previous years.
“Most of them took a little longer to sell than we were used to during a boom time, so people were quite anxious,” she said.
"People were quite anxious, we had to start getting price reductions or adjustments last year," said Sue Walters.
Walters said it’s been tough with less investors in the market.
Christensen said Hawke’s Bay house prices saw huge growth in 2020-2021 as “the market went ballistic” and the correction was inevitable.
While the market is going through a quiet period, there is still demand.
One open home in Taradale, a four-bedroom, two-story house, is popular with families.
“Our kids are getting older and we need a little bit more space,” said Rachel Dickinson, another prospective buyer.
“There’s a lot of homes to look at at the moment, and we certainly don’t feel like there’s nothing available. If we saw a place we wanted, we would look at doing a subject to sell [offer].”
Even in an acknowledged buyers’ market, Dickinson was still worried that “subject to sell” would be risky.
“Sometimes it’s an advantage to be a cash buyer. We have missed out on buying before, so it might be that we choose to sell our place first. So that we can come in as a cash buyer and have more security to get the property we want.”
Mother-of-three Kadesha Whyte is also looking for a bigger home and is in the fortunate position of being a cash buyer.
“We just felt we needed to get into that position of being a cash buyer rather than subject to sale. It took us almost three months to sell and the price jumped a couple of times,” Whyte said.
Kadesha Whyte checking out an open home in Taradale, Napier.
Like many, she’s experienced the highs and lows of selling in the current market.
“We had a few moments when we thought ‘it’s never going to sell’ or ‘how much will we have to drop the price?’ We were in the high $600,000 and then dropped down to a low $600,000, but really it’s just coming down everywhere. You have to meet the market.”
Agents say the market is slowly, but surely, improving.
Property Brokers’ Walters reckoned that it’s a much more normal market now: “It’s not devastating. It’s not terrible. And it’s not a hopeless exercise to have a house on the market.”
After a very quiet end-of-year, Walters and her team are getting busier. They had nine houses under contract in January.
One of them is an entry-level three-bedroom house in Camberley, built in the 1960s with an asking price of $499,000.
The house was listed on January 4 and had sold by January 30 to a first-home buyer.
Tremains’ Christensen said it’s action time for first-home buyers.
“Make sure you do your homework and get your pre-approval done. Then just go out shopping,” he said.
