It Feels Good to BE Back!

It feels so good to be back! Thanks to the Covid-19 level 2 protocols we will be running open homes for the first time in 7 weeks.

There’s a lot being said about the future of the residential market. While it’s way too early to say, we note with interest that during the lockdown, with only one exception, all our conditional agreements went unconditional. Conclusion - in spite of the Covid-19 situation, buyer confidence remained. Of the last 30 sales we made the average selling price was 12% above CV – sales made ranged from $700,000 to over $10 million with an average selling price just over $2 million.

We have continued to make sales during lockdown at a rate that has actually increased over the 7 week period. Of the sales made during level 4 and level 3 lockdown, sale prices ranged from 20% below CV to 41% above – the average being just 2% below. As you can see price to CV ratios can be misleading and not necessarily indicative, as every home is different. Demand and competition can have a huge influence on price.

An analysis of our recent 145 listings on Trademe showed that they produced on average 4,675 views each, 161 people had our properties on their watchlist and the median number of days listed on the site was just 28. As we speak we are selling homes on a daily basis. With mortgage rates now heading towards the mid 2% range, this is, to coin a current cliché, an ‘unprecedented’ moment for buyers, whom it seems have not lost their confidence.

Level 2 trading can’t come soon enough

Level 2 trading can’t come soon enough for many businesses including real estate. Thankfully it looks like next week is our time to all get closer to getting on with our lives, albeit with specific Covid-19 protocols.  What’s the market doing? Well, if online hit rates and enquiry is anything to go by – it’s active. Level 3 has allowed us to effect viewings which has led to sales. We have also noted most conditional agreements going unconditional. Sales numbers are not surprisingly down due to our inability to function during lockdown over four weeks in level 4. We are optimistic heading into level 2 that the market will bounce back, as for where the market is going pricewise – it is too soon to say. From virtual tour viewings, e-flyers, online auctions and Zoom type communication, we are fully geared to ensure a safe real estate experience for all our customers .I’m looking forward to bursting my bubble and catching up with you 1 metre apart!

Viewings are available from Tuesday!

Level 3 - ITS ON!!
Viewings are available from Tuesday!

Since 9 April REINZ has been advocating on behalf of members with the Government to enable private viewings under Level 3. We are delighted to share with you news that the Minister of Housing, the Hon. Dr Megan Woods, has confirmed that private viewings, by appointment, of homes for sale or rental properties can take place under Alert Level 3 - with details and limits to be worked through.

SELL SAFE - Bret & Donna's solution.

To assist homeowners in a Covid-19 level 3 environment, we have created a digital marketing solution called ‘Sell Safe’. This package includes photography - including a drone if necessary, a comprehensive walk-through tour – effectively your digital open home, signage and digital flyers, all at no cost to the homeowner.  

The enquiry produced from this marketing that results in an inspection will be handled by appointment to ensure social distancing and other protocols for the safety of both buyers and sellers. We will also offer online auctions, these provide for purchasers to bid from a distance whilst still being fully connected to the bidding action. Needless to say, the objective is to help homeowners achieve the best price possible within the constraints of level 3 lockdown and do it safely. Be assured our team is totally committed to your wellbeing.  

With regards to concerns over buyer appetite. If website activity is anything to go by it would appear buyer interest is actually very high. Having experienced 30 years in real estate, including the 1987 Share Market Crash and 2008 GFC, we can confirm the market never stops. There are always buyers and sellers, in short life goes on. Given the lowest ever interest rate environment we are quietly confident that the residential market will emerge actively from lockdown.

Level 3 - When it comes what does it mean for us?

REINZ welcomes Level 3 guidance for real estate activity

REINZ has welcomed the clarity from the government today regarding how businesses, including real estate organisations, can safely operate during Alert Level 3.

Today’s announcement from the Government included the following detail about the real estate profession: ‘A real estate agent can open, but people should work from home if they can. The agent can enter peoples’ homes, but not have customers in the office. You cannot run an open home…… Similarly, workers going into peoples' homes, such as furniture removers, electricians and plumbers could also return, on the basis that distancing is maintained’.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ says: “Over the past few weeks REINZ has worked closely with the real estate profession to develop guidance on what real estate activity can occur at various levels. This guidance was provided to different Ministers on 9 April and today’s clarifications seem to line up with the material we have prepared.

“We welcome further clarification from Ministers over the coming days, in order to allow the real estate profession to support people buying or selling a home. We’re also looking for additional clarification around whether private viewings of homes and rental properties are acceptable under Level 3,” she continues.

“Once we have this additional information, we will be releasing detailed guidelines for the profession in the coming days,” she concludes.

Congrats NZ!

Congratulations New Zealand – we’re cracking it. This will be welcome news to so many, particularly those who were caught mid-property transaction prior to the lockdown. We have stayed engaged with our teams and customers throughout this lockdown and are totally prepared to service the marketplace post lockdown, when we do you can be assured that we will:

1)         Tightly control the access to your home

2)         Ensure all interactions comply with social distancing and Covid-19 viewing protocols

3)         Use our in-house digital technology including virtual tours and online auctions to facilitate a complete online campaign if required

4)         Listen to your personal situation and create a tailored selling solution to match your circumstances

5)         Do all things possible to make sure your selling price is optimised

Virtual Appraisals Available now!

We may be in lockdown, but actually life goes on albeit from a safe distance. We continue to field lots of enquiry and yes, we are making sales. If you're looking for an appraisal I'm happy to oblige - here's how.

WOW- What a difference a week makes!

Wow – what a difference a week makes. Here we are now in a state of national emergency and in lock down. Please stay safe – don’t venture from home, we all need to play our part. You’ll probably run out of Netflix options, when you do – take a visit to uprealestate.co.nz, click ‘buying’ and let your fingers do the walking on the virtual open home tours. Be assured we are still very much in business and doing as much as we can – it’s a great opportunity to have a relaxed chat about real estate! Please phone us anytime – we are at home.

So whats going on in REAL ESTATE?

Please find below the following advice we have at this point in time. This is not legal advice, but provides a recommended approach in certain situations.

Essential Services: Real estate is not considered an essential service. 

Open Homes/Private viewings: These are not considered essential services so cannot take place in person. They could take place via online virtual tours, where people aren't required to leave their homes and no in-person contact occurs.

All UP Listings are available for a virtual tour (provided at no cost to our vendors), please virtually visit our properties on our website and take a detailed walk through at your leisure.

Auctions: These are not considered essential and Auctions have been postponed for the foreseeable future. 

Settlements: In lockdown, vendors and purchasers will NOT be able to move in and out of their houses. For this reason, Auckland District Law Society is recommending that settlements be deferred until after the Alert Level 4 restriction is lifted. The party's lawyers will make appropriate amendments to the contract to facilitate this.

Moving if a property settles during lockdown: Travel will be restricted to essential travel only e.g. pharmacy/supermarket trip, so settlements and moving house should be deferred until after the Alert Level 4 restriction is lifted. The parties lawyers will make appropriate amendments to the contract to facilitate this.

Covid 19 - Real Estate Impacts.

Notice to Clients,
Today's announcement re. COVID-19 has thrown a spanner in the works for our industry. In 48
hours we will be in lockdown.
From Wednesday 5pm we along with all other non-essential businesses will have to close our
operations and work from home.
In order to comply with our current understanding of the Level 4 restrictions any buyer inspections
and really all our activity around the sale of your home, including an auction will be impossible.
It is our intention to keep operating as much as we can in order to facilitate transactions. That will
require our activity to be via digital/electronic mediums.
Our administration function will continue operations from our homes.
If your home is for auction we will transfer buyer interest to private treaty. Similarly, rather than
open homes we will point buyers to our digital walkthrough tours.
Right now these are the limitations we must work with for the next four weeks.
Rest assured we are still very much in business.

Kindest Regards

Bret & Donna

UP Real Estate.

COVID19 - Virtual tours

For those worried about visiting an open home in light of the Coronavirus and for those who are unwell we encourage you to take advantage of our digital walk through tours. We supply a walk through tour to all our marketed homes, these allow you to walk through the home at your desired speed using your mouse! It’s all part of going the extra mile for our customers – we call it ‘real estate by design’.

Franchised fast food doesn’t compare with a chefs meal!

In the matter of a picture being worth a thousand words, we are continually impressed at the difference our marketing makes. As a boutique real estate business we are often overlooked by homeowners who presume enlisting a big real estate company will be better for them. However in much the same way as franchised fast food doesn’t compare with a chefs meal, the time and expertise taken to get all the ingredients together to project a home appropriately is so important and makes all the difference in attracting the right buyer. We call it ‘real estate by design’ – if you’re thinking of selling we would love to explain. 

Will it ever rain again?

INDUSTRY UPDATE: Will it ever rain again?! This spell of weather is just amazing, but we do need rain - everything is frying up, including interest rates! We note HSBC launching a new low two year fixed home loan at 3.2%. Inspite of drought conditions and the fear of Coronavirus, the residential market is continuing to gain momentum. And why not, all things considered, do we not enjoy the best place on earth? If you tried to sell last year and were unsuccessful, we would love to talk to you – it’s your turn. Please phone us anytime, we have a way to get you back up in lights quickly.

The Market is Heating up!

There’s a New Year, new attitude in play – maybe it’s the weather, but things real estate have undoubtedly hotted up. Open home numbers and enquiries generally are significantly up and sales are being made. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to sell - this is it. If you have been waiting for the right time to buy – wait no more. With the supply/demand factors currently in play along with a new sense of buyer confidence, the next outcome will be firming house prices.

Buyers are out in FORCE!

If open home numbers are anything to go by buyers are out in force. We can report one of our homes receiving over 100 open home visits in its first weekend and several with 20-30. This is a very different start to the year than recent previous years. Fortunately we have some great new listings for buyers and more to come. We’re expecting a very busy start to the year.

8% increase ! + New Changes to Sales Contracts.

More upside predictions for the residential market with the ANZ economists predicting an 8% house price increase this year https://www.interest.co.nz/property/103321/anz-economists-believe-there-even-upside-risk-their-8-house-price-rise-forecast-do

In other news December 2019 ushered in changes to the sale and purchase agreement with respect to conditional agreements. These changes put the onus on the purchaser to make a genuine attempt to complete. Non-performance of both finance and builders clauses require written explanations to be submitted to the vendors solicitor.

It’s busy – we’re back and into it

UP Real Estate celebrates its 25 year anniversary

UP Real Estate celebrated its 25 year anniversary recently, here is an article about the beginnings and what makes UP so special.

https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/real-estates-perfect-double-act-37346?fbclid=IwAR0NGdlG-pQM3We-hTJ9z9DEbtqbjB_Ecx0EiPj-jGPXMeFKKn6eQe62Ln0

The Lights are ON!

INDUSTRY UPDATE: November was a record month, December will likely be the same – amazing! In short, from where we are standing pretty much everything is selling. The turnaround from six months ago is both breathtaking and hard to comprehend. It can’t just be sunshine that’s made the difference! Having grafted in a low sales volume residential market for over two years, it feels like someone turned the lights back on about eight weeks ago. Any sense of market apprehension seems to have gone and with it any idea of the market falling. Investors know it, and are back, similarly first home buyers are saying it’s time to buy. In short, our inventory levels are falling with Christmas approaching, as buyers make decisions.

Breathtaking and hard to comprehend

From where we are standing pretty much everything is selling. The turnaround from six months ago is both breathtaking and hard to comprehend. It can’t just be sunshine that’s made the difference! The fundamentals six months ago were about the same as they are now with the exception of a slight tweak in interest rates. It will be interesting to see the effect on the market of today’s reserve bank announcement on the need for banks to hold more capital. Not sure if it’s really necessary, given the banks had already taken a change of position around LVRs and taken a more conservative approach generally. Stand by.

17th October Market Update.

With school holidays behind us and Christmas now very much on the radar, it is now the decision making season. As expected the number of listings is increasing buyers are on the hunt with a view to being ‘in for Christmas’. The start of the new school year is also always an impending event that compels decisions. We have been saying for several months that the residential market is on the turn and the latest report from the Real Estate Institute confirms this. https://www.reinz.co.nz/Media/Default/Statistic%20Documents/2019/Residential/September/REINZ%20Monthly%20Property%20Report%20-%20September%202019.pdf

We can confirm the number of sales we are making slowly improving. We note a shift in auction clearance rates and in general buyers would seem to have decided that with interest rates at record low levels, it is time buy. 

As we write, we note Westpac tipping house prices to rise next year https://www.nzherald.co.nz/%20business/news/article.cfm?c_%20id=3&objectid=12276625

In short, it seems the winter season in the residential market may be over – bring on summer.

Market Update 3rd October 2019

INDUSTRY UPDATE: It seems the combination of record low interest rates and pent up decision making based on 12-24 months of ‘let’s wait and see’ is coming to an end. The numbers tell us that house sales have been on the downward slide since 2015. The reason we think is a general lack of confidence. Confidence is a feel good factor based on people’s perception of the future. There’s no doubt there have been clouds on the horizon. It would seem on balance, and given the record low interest rates, buyers have decided it’s safe to proceed. Things appear to be changing. We note with interest a similar scenario in the Sydney and Melbourne markets.
https://www.smh.com.au/…/house-values-jump-1-9-per-cent-in-…
People won’t put their lives on hold forever – life goes on. I reckon we are in for a catch up period that has already started.