A post-election wave of listings means selling sooner may be better

Ray White NZ CEO, Daniel Coulson, says it’s important to understand why someone is bringing their home to the market, what they’re wanting to achieve.

“If you’ve got a seller who is waiting for the best opportunity to sell a property…what we can advise is that, at any time in the last two years, dating back from October/ November 2021, the conditions are better today than at any point in that time,” he says.

Some vendors may wait for a change in policy before they decide to list.But that’s not going to happen on October 15, the day after the election, explains Daniel. So, again, it’s for the vendor to decide how long they’re willing to wait. Until January? Until February or March next year?

The Ray White CEO says if the Reserve Bank raises the interest rates again in response to the positivity of sentiment in the economy post-election, then buyers will be able to borrow less money.

“We’re saying conditions are very good at the moment, there are more buyers and less competition, and there’s greater competition to come post-election,” says Daniel.

He sees promising signs of new listings coming on in the coming months, with property appraisals at the nationwide firm up by 48% on September 5 compared with the same time last year, and live listings, those listed in the last 28 days, up by 14.87%.

With the current shortage of listings at the moment, there is merit in at least thinking about listing sooner rather than later, says Harcourts Managing Director, Bryan Thomson.

If the vendor is selling their property to trade up to another one, and if the market goes up 10%, then the one they’re buying will go upeven more. If they sell now and buy, the gap will be smaller, says Bryan. He advises: ”Vendors should buy and sell property when they can and need to; and take the property on the day.”

If people are thinking of selling, at least they know the environment they’re going into now. No one can know what will happen in the summer - though chances are, more listings will be competing.

The buyers are there now, agrees Ben Castle, CEO of Wellington agency, Tommy’s Real Estate. In comparison to 72 offers coming in on 59 properties for sale last August, 131 offers came in on 59 properties this August.

This number means that 60 buyers have missed out on property and are still actively in the market, he explains.

All of his agents are having discussions with vendors about timing their sale.

If sellers wait until November or January, there will be a glut of stock then and not as many buyers, so now’s the time for them to act, says Ben. His message to sellers is that in November the market may have moved, with 100 more properties for the same number of buyers.

“Interest rates have stabilised, property is priced right, and for a nice, sound property, there are multiple offers, whether it’s for a $2 million home or a first home buyer property. There will be seven, eight or nine offers on those homes,” says Ben.

In Dunedin, a market dominated by investors, listings have been dropping over the past few months, says Nidd Realty principal, Joe Nidd. In August 2022, there were 522 properties on the market, and in August 2023 there were 459 compared with peaks of 700 in March.

“Every week now we’re seeing an increase in open home attendees and far more first and second homes are going under multiple offers. It’s the most basic of indicators saying that the timing is good, it’s not just rear mirror vision thinking, but looking ahead,” he says.

There’s also plenty of data that agents can point to that indicates the market is waiting for their property now.

Ray White’s Daniel Coulson says he is not in the market of predicting what will happen in four or five months’ time. “I’m in the now, and what we know right now is that there are a good number of buyers competing for properties. If you look at our auctions the last 28 days, they’ve had an average of 3.1 registered bidders which is giving people real confidence.”

With expectations of greater competition in stock coming post-election, Ray White Manukau is putting together a gala auction on October 10 of up to 60 properties to give owners of South Auckland homes the opportunity to get on the market before more homes are listed in November.

Even Wellington, whose residents have a reputation for being a bit auction-shy, has been enjoying some real success in auctions recently.

Amanda Stevens, who manages the Ray White Wellington team, says the average number of registered bidders on each property would be around 8, much higher than the 3.1 national average. A four bedroom, one bathroom home in Newlands recently attracted 19 registered bidders.

Bayleys Real Estate is also reporting evidence of confident auction activity. Johnny Sinclair, National Director of Bayleys Residential, says buyer interest is very strong currently, with multiple offers happening and auctions being brought forward. He saw five cases of this last month alone.

The good news for sellers in today’s market is prices have definitely stabilised, says Johnny.

“There’s a big realisation that buyers are not expecting things to get any cheaper and sellers will not reach the peaks of the Covid market, and they’ve met in the middle,” he adds.