Queenstown – What’s Happening

The ski season came to an end on the 13^th of October with The Remarkables the last to stop operations for the season. Despite a slow start, consensus is that the snow conditions have been good and treated us all the way to the last day. Local body elections closed last Saturday seeing Jim Boult return to serve a second term as Queenstown Lakes District Mayor – congratulations Jim.

Queenstown Residential

Sales of residential property continue an extended subdued trend relative to the very active years of 2016 and 2017. Even though purchasing activity has declined with controls on investor lending, the foreign buyer ban and purchasers acting prudently, it remains the lower number of properties coming to market that is restricting the number of sales that could be achieved. The reduction in the OCR two months ago has certainly stimulated purchaser activity and we are seeing investor purchasers returning to the market place and now apparently accepting lower yields than previously seen. The consistently high median sale price does show us that our market is healthy and that purchasers do have to meet a good purchase price if they wish to secure a property.

58 residential and rural lifestyle sales for September is certainly very consistent with the all months of the year to date; there are no surprises. Section sales are perhaps higher than normal with seven new residential lots receiving titles for September in Kingston.

Median days to sell for residential dwellings is now persistently higher than vendors would like at 52 days.

Median sale price of residential dwellings has bounced up after a two month low over winter and back to $1,000,000.

26 sales over $1,000,000 is now consistent and 6 sales over $2,000,000 is a very good result and perhaps a peak in activity for this price bracket for maybe 12 months.

Our listing data is supplied by www.realestate.co.nz; they report for the region of Central Otago-Lakes District (Wanaka and Queenstown) for the month of September 2019:

• Total listings at 598 for September 2019, compared to a 12-month high 696 and a 12-month low of 562.
• The average ask price for September 2019 is $1,033,947, compared to the last 12-month average of $966,748 and 2% up on the average ask price for August 2019.
• New listings to market for September 2019 are 214 compared to 210 for September 2018 and 170 for August 2019.

Queenstown Rural Residential and Lifestyle

Four rural residential and lifestyle sales for the month of September 2019 is an active month in today’s terms and compares favourably against three for September 2018. Comparing sales for the year to date against the same period for the previous six years in the graph below does demonstrate that we are clearly in a period of relatively low activity. The highest value rural sale for September 2019 was a somewhat modest $2,500,000.

With more than 30 homes for sale on the $2.0m to $3.5m range and with more than 30 rural residential/rural lifestyle properties currently on the marke,t there is choice available to those that are purchasing.

Kingston – Glenorchy – Arrowtown

Glenorchy

There was one sale of a rural lifestyle home in Glenorchy for the month of September. I count only two residential homes as being currently for sale along with one lifestyle home, four lifestyle lots and two residential sections. Very little for sale appears to be the cause for low sales numbers.

Kingston

Seven Lakefield Estate sections received new titles and settled in September 2019. A further 15 titles are expected to issue in December 3019. Only 1 home sold in Kingston for the month of September. Five homes are currently for sale in Kingston along with a number of good sections at Lakefield. With this number of good properties currently available for sale, there are some good opportunities for purchasers.

Arrowtown

There were two homes sold in Arrowtown, excluding Millbrook for the month of September. I count 11 homes for sale in Arrowtown. With good stock levels we are expecting to see increased sales numbers next month.

National Sales

“After a quiet few months over the winter, the number of properties sold across the country increased by 3.3% in September, the highest number of properties we’ve seen sold for the month of September in 3 years. This suggests that we’re starting to see the usual spring uplift and also that more confidence is starting to creep back into the market,” says Bindi Norwell CEO for the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. [See REINZ report]

Auctions were used in 13.5% of all sales across the country in September, with 796 properties selling under the hammer

Economic Comment

Westpac’s Weekly Commentary is headed up “A narrowing of differences”:

“The nature of New Zealand’s economic slowdown has started to change. Smaller, more export focused regions of New Zealand are still outperforming big metropolitan regions, such as Auckland and Canterbury. However, the gap is narrowing, and this is likely to continue over the coming year” [See Westpac report]

Property Management

Residential Letting

Surprisingly we have not seen a marked lift in available properties at the end of the snow season as the snow workers and players depart Queenstown. It looks like permanent resident demand is now so large that the seasonal effects are reducing. Properties remain easy to rent, with landlords not having to worry about extended vacancy periods as long as rentals are reasonable and in line with market rentals. There are options for intending renters in today’s market and they clearly by-pass properties that are considered to have high rentals.

Visitor Accommodation

Our strong reservations have continued through winter and into October and November, and continue through to early 2020. Our Holiday Accommodation ladies couldn’t be happier with how our clients’ properties are performing.

Right now our managers are taking the opportunity in the shoulder season lull to run spring cleans and attend to maintenance that had been deferred while bookings were running strong

Talk to our successful property managers to discuss holiday home performance and what it takes to get started. Please talk to Kylie or Sharlene if you would like to know more.

Adrian Snow

Principal Agent and Director AREINZ MNZIS

Professionals Queenstown

www.professionalsqueenstown.nz

www.queenstownholiday.nz