JANUARY 2020 NEWSLETTER

2021: What to expect (in Far North property, at least)

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that predictions are a risky business. But in our small corner of the world, there are a couple of things about which we’re willing to make a forecast.

You already know that demand for property is strong across NZ, and that includes the Far North. But what you may not know is that the situation up here is a bit unique. That’s because there has been very little development of bare land in the Far North over the past few years. The number of available sections is dwindling rapidly and there are very few new sections becoming available to replace them.

This shortage is already being felt. Michael says this is the busiest he’s been in 16 years of real estate, and there’s just not enough available properties to meet demand. But it’s in the months ahead that we’ll really see the impact of this scarcity on prices. And it won’t just affect sections, as buyers who might otherwise have purchased a section are forced to look at houses instead. We therefore expect increasing upward pressure on both land and house prices this year, as buyers compete for a smaller and smaller number of properties.

Does that mean that buyers will be less discerning? Not necessarily. We find that buyers can be pretty forgiving of a few imperfections in a property at or under the $700K mark, but above $700K — though demand is still strong — they have a higher expectation of quality. But regardless of your price point, now’s a great time to be selling in the Far North.