What is the market doing?
The shortage of house listings in the Auckland market continues. Barfoot & Thompson, the largest agent in the Auckland market, reports that they listed 1050 properties for sale in July, their lowest number for a month in the last decade. This was a reduction of 8.9% over June.
This has not yet led to any increases in selling prices and they report that “buyers are prepared to pay a fair market price, but not over the top.” They also report selling 778 homes in July – 20.8% higher than July last year.
So what could this mean for house buyers in Auckland?
It is likely that you will have fewer homes to choose from regardless of your price category but those homes are likely to sell at a realistic market value. This means if you need to buy you may find yourself compromising because of the limited choice of properties. You may also want to talk to the experts about how your mortgage (if you need one) is best structured to make the most of current low interest rates.
Does anyone remember “weatherside”?
Working with a buyer recently we viewed a home which I spotted was built with a cladding called weatherside. This is a material (no longer available) which was made with high density fibreboard which sometimes broke down in our wet climate if water was able to contact the material through paint cracks. When this happened the cladding had to be replaced. There were a lot of legal issues in the 1980’s about this product and plenty of media coverage but it now appears to have been forgotten.
This home had replacement cladding on one wall but two of the existing walls had signs of rot which had been painted over and all three walls will need to be reclad. This of course will need to be reflected in the selling price.
Buyers need to remain vigilant when buying and do some research about products which have failed in the past. If you are getting a building inspection done, ask them to confirm the cladding material in all cases and check the council file to see what material was specified in the building consent. Weatherside looks a lot like Hardiplank, which hasn’t caused any problems, but is constructed quite differently.
Monolithic cladding is our current problem material but don’t overlook other problems from the past because they have not necessarily been repaired or replaced.
3 Tips for beating the winter blues.
1. Try out some new recipes and invite some friends over for a taste.
2. Next time it rains (and it probably won’t be long) search for a rainbow when the sun comes out.
3. If you can’t afford to go somewhere warm for a break this year, grab some brochures and make a goal and savings plan for next year.
Robyn Forryan
Property Magic
auckland property news 