All regions recorded an increase in sales year over year
New Zealand’s lifestyle property market recorded 2,773 sales in the three months ended January 2021 compared to only 1,800 in the same period last year, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ).
REINZ’s latest data also revealed 9,037 lifestyle properties sold in the year to January 2021, which was 1,888 (26.4%) more than were sold in the year to January 2020. The value of lifestyle properties sold was $8.39 billion for the year to January 2021. However, REINZ recorded 298 less lifestyle property sales for the three months ended January 2021 than for the three months ended December 2020, which had 3,071 sales.
The median price for all lifestyle properties sold in the three months to January 2021 reached $847,000, which was $121,500 higher than the three months ended January 2020 (+16.7%).
“While the three-month period ending January 2021 reflected a continuation of a very strong market throughout the country, the actual month of January at 642 sales reflected a nose-dive from the results over the preceding six months, which recorded an average figure of 980 sales per month across the country – an incredible performance,” said REINZ rural spokesman Brian Peacocke.
“All regions apart from Gisborne were impacted in the drop referred to above, with results in some locations down in excess of 50%.
“Irrespective of the reduction in volumes, which after all did coincide with the annual holiday period, the median price for the country, at $847,000, was still an outstanding result,” he concluded.
All 14 regions recorded an increase in sales compared to January 2020, with Auckland (+233 sales) and Canterbury (+186 sales) seeing the most significant increases, according to REINZ.
However, Southland recorded the smallest increase in sales (+1 sales) in the three months to January 2021 compared to the three months to January 2020. Compared to the three months to December 2020, one region recorded an increase in sales.
Meanwhile, 13 regions recorded an increase in the median price of lifestyle blocks between the three months ending January 2020 and the three months ending January 2021. The most notable examples were in Gisborne (+60%), Bay of Plenty (+38%), and Southland (+28%) – with West Coast (-14%) as the only exception.
