Aucklanders viewing properties elsewhere

Posted by designerwebsites on June 27, 2015

I was a little baffled the other day when I read on the Unconditional website’s New Zealand Property Report that according to the latest data from Realestate.co.nz, Aucklanders are significantly more interested in properties outside their region compared to the same time last year.

Baffled because this seems more like common sense than news. Why buy in Auckland when value is to be found elsewhere?

According to Brendon Skipper, CEO of Realestate.co.nz, “The number of people from Auckland looking at properties in other parts of the country has increased significantly over the year from last May. This is a dramatic change in online searching behaviour, which could well be driven by record high property prices in Auckland.”

The property listing site’s data reveals that properties for sale in Hawke’s Bay attracted the greatest increase in interest, with 152.2 percent more Aucklanders looking at properties there compared to the same month last year. Other regions which have seen a jump in interest are Manawatu/Wanganui (+123.4 percent), Waikato (+113.8 percent), Northland (+85.5 percent) and the Bay of Plenty(+83.5 percent).

Interestingly, offshore Asian investors appear to be showing less interest than before in New Zealand’s property market, with 20 percent less Asian viewers in May compared to 12 months previously. Contradicting this was a 19.9 percent increase in interest from investors from elsewhere, particularly from Australia, the US and the UK.

What would be interesting to find out is how many New Zealanders are looking beyond New Zealand altogether to offshore property markets in their search for the best value and return. Surely, limiting one’s search to regional New Zealand alone is unlikely to provide for the best returns the world has to offer.

[Image: A view of Napier, by Robyn Gallagher]