Real Estate Sales Figures For November 13 In Queenstown – Is The Trend Established?

Date: 28th January 2014 by Tim Medland

In earlier articles we commented that new Reserve Bank LVR rules could make the Queenstown Property market swing in favour of investors, with first home buyers becoming more cautious and some even choosing to keep renting as they save towards the now required 20% deposit. With 40 residential sales in Queenstown for November compared to 60 in November 2012, combined with a shift in median prices from around $500k in August 2013 to $642,500 in November, the least we can say is that the October tendency has continued through November. Anecdotal evidence also indicates that first home buyers are less active than they were during our winter months.

Is this a positive sign for investors? With Queenstown still heading population growth for the whole of New Zealand it would be logical to predict at least some upward pressure on weekly rents, and shortage of supply of rental properties, both factors to be considered as favourable if you are looking to invest in Queenstown.

At 43 days compared to 37 days in November last year, the time required to complete a sale is also possibly showing a more cautious market.
Sales for the 6 months leading to November 2013 are slightly lower than sales for the same period last year at 265 compared to 272. Sales for the 12 months leading to Nov 2013 are still up, at 600 compared to 565 for the same period last year.
As for the overall value of real estate sales for this year, it has slightly increased, with $341.5M to this point, compared to 336M last year.

REINZ warns in their monthly press release analysing monthly figures for November that “further data is required before we can determine this is the beginning of a trend, as short term effects from a change of pace in sales at certain price points, or a seasonal effect arising from an increase in the number of higher value properties brought to market at this time of the year”(excerpt) , which of course can be even more acute in a small place like Queenstown.

Our source for this month’s statistics is REINZ monthly report.

Posted in: Statistics