Annual house price growth has ranged from 7.4% in Queenstown-Lakes to 38.1% in Upper Hutt - REINZ

Why is this a news or anyone surprised as the Queen of NZ (unfortunately in democracy if one gets full majority becomes one till just before next election - power corrupts) and this Queen of NZ had made it clear that she wants house price to keep growing and is doing anything and everything with support from Mr Orr, so what else does one expect.

Since yesterday media too has been asking her questions but has any media or journalist approach her for her response on 10% monthly growth - NO. Media too is dominated by Marks and Mikes but am surprised that Jenee has not raised it - in fact should not just questions her which she can easily deflect as Jacinda Arden now is an expert on avoiding, lying and manipulation so should not just ask question but should grill her.

She was shouting on top of her voice when was happening under National ( now on hindsight was not as bad) but she has taken it to a different level and she too now is in denial mode or trying to avoid and if forced to face the camera - manipulates with lie.

Would be interesting to see her response with straight face and than immediately divert to NEXT question, please or come with excuse of waiting for advise or.........

No surprise, Upper Hutt is paradise...

Lets tip another $100 billion into the economy and see if we can double them in a year.

Upper hutt - no idea but guessing based on population around 100 sales in an average month, maybe less ?

So 100 stupid people make the market price . . .

Is it hard to believe Upper Hutt has a few hundred stupid people earning a salary in Welly, looking to buy an IP to jump on the gravy train ?

Actually just checked - January 30 sales, Feb 71 - tiny sample sizes get big swings even if its an index.

Lets get some listings from Labour and rbnz having a shake of the tree this month, get some volume in sales, then we might get a better gauge of market value of property.

I'll put it out their right now for people to check - Upper Hutt march 2021 HPI to fall from February 2021 (will still up 20-30% on march last year though), this about data more than house value.

Wasn't this data already published yesterday? What's the need to highlight it again from a journalism perspective other than creating FOMO when another entry was published already?

It's interesting to me that Queenstown prices have managed to climb at all, local businesses themselves seem to indicate they are getting ready to wind down:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/438184/third-of-queenstown-business…

It must be out of towners scooping up houses because I'd think banks might be hesitant to lend in that market?

The salaries of the elected officials and unelected reserve bankers should be reduced by the annual house price inflation index.

To figure out if the market has peaked ask a simple question - Can enthusiasm be increased further from here ?

Are there still bears sitting on the sideline to add to the demand side ? The market turns once the last, most stubborn bear buys.

Economists have got this horribly wrong once again - we are in for a bumpy 15% drop (more in some parts) mainly due to how much over-extension the market has had based on emotion and low sales volume which is not sustainable - sleepy multi-property owners will not hesitate to offload rubbish that has 50-100k plus of overdue maintenance deferred.

In all the frenzied talk about Auckland's $100K jump in a month no one seems to have looked at the Wellington graph in the linked article, which also shows a $100K jump. Then again, then Auckland graph shows a $105K jump.

Wellington increase is even larger than Auckland's on a percentage basis, which may not be exciting if it was a smaller region like the West Coast (50% of not much is only a bit more than not much) but it was coming from a $790K base to start with.

While I'm doing very well out of this run in terms of on-paper wealth I've been feeling very...guilty?...about the value given to our house that is really nothing special. A fallback of 20% or so wouldn't harm me financially but it would certainly help FHBs, as well as my children when they look to buy in a few years.

With his prophesy of house prices (only) doubling every ten years we might have to start referring to Ashely Church as a DGM.

F me, and I thought Bitcoin was lucrative. No wonder half the developing world wants into NZ.

Meanwhile ..... GR is still thinking about what to do.

You only have to service the debt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyaitC91hEM

This makes perfect sense. Everyone on Earth is desperate to live in Upper Hutt.

Not all hope is lost

FHBs who are currently locked out of the housing market due to marginally insufficient deposits should deploy a new strategy to get on the ladder.

The micro-strategy that can be used are known as reverse flow acquisition. Whilst many FHBs are fixated on standalone houses to get on the ladder in order to fulfil their Kiwi dreams, they become blind sided by what else is available in other segments of the property market.

FHBs are beginning to look at town houses as their first choice attempt at getting on to the ladder. What is currently overlooked are the apartments that the media had wrote down due to the pandemic. This puts a transient price pressure on apartments that would in normal times be sold for much more.

FHBs should size this opportunity to enter the market through apartments. As the potential for upside is greater in this segment due to the easing of the pandemic situation, FHBs who adopt this strategy could see an accelerated growth in their equity which will eventually be substantial enough for them to upgrade along and towards their dream home.

Another advantage of reverse flow buying is that you get to avoid the crowd and competition which means better value for your hard earned money.

Be quick though before other FHBs caught on to this- this may be your last chance!

For investors who currently have sufficient cashflow and leveraging capacities, they should be looking at acquiring properties located at popular tourist zones. With vaccinations ramping up, the pandemic situation beginning to ease and the pent up urge to travel, there is great potential for a tourism boom. Any turnaround will see a asymmetrical upside in favour of the investor.

Just like the above mentioned micro strategy, there is a price pressure on holiday homes as the market is overly focused on housing in the capital cities. This presents a bargain not seen in normal times which is coming round the corner. Investors will need to assess their financial capacities and be decisive- this opportunity won't last long.

For both FHBs and investors, opportunities don't present themselves often, they are taken by a prepared mind.