Slight increase in search activity on property website Realestate.co.nz

Property / news

Average search activity per listing on Realestate.co.nz rose 1.9% year-on-year

23rd Nov 23, 5:00am by Greg Ninness

Average search activity on property website Realestate.co.nz was up only marginally in October year-on-year.

Newly released data from the website shows the average number of searches per listing rose just 1.9% nationally in October, compared with October last year.

That relatively modest increase in activity is perhaps surprising because October last year had the lowest number of residential sales recorded by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand for the month of October since 2011, and sales in October this year were up 7.8% compared to a year ago.

And rather than increasing over spring, the national average search per listing declined from the previous month in both September and October this year.

Search activity was also very mixed depending on the region.

Ten regions had higher average search levels per listing in October this year than they did in October last year, while nine regions had lower search levels.

The biggest increase in average searches per listing compared to a year ago was in Wellington, up 47.7%,. The biggest decline in average searches per listing was in Coromandel, down 44.5%. See the table below for the full regional figures.

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62 Comments

by Speedmax | 23rd Nov 23, 5:40am 1700671202

The so-called green shoots have withered and all that’s left is straw, which spruikers will clutch at. Wait for comments below as proof….

by Dgm | 23rd Nov 23, 7:36am 1700678184

Ah it must be all those extra dead shoots (views) showing up

by interesting1234 | 23rd Nov 23, 12:57pm 1700697466

people simply use it as they despise homes.co.nz and there may be a slight uptick in positivity around with the weather so people are having a sniff at what's around but the prices still stink and the resulting mortgage costs are rotten.

by IT GUY | 23rd Nov 23, 7:11am 1700676666

1.9% increase is noise...... hasn't our population grown more than that in the last year???

And rather than increasing over spring, the national average search per listing declined from the previous month in both September and October this year.

by agnostium | 23rd Nov 23, 9:26am 1700684781

Yep, you'd think that all those thousands of cashed up immigrants that are flooding in to bid up the housing market would be spiking the search numbers but I guess according to spruikers they just turn up to the first house they come across, bid it to moon and voila...

by K.W. | 23rd Nov 23, 10:16am 1700687814

Immigrants can't buy houses. Even if they come straight in on a permanent residency visa they still have to wait 12 months before being elgiible to buy something.

by kiwicat | 23rd Nov 23, 12:34pm 1700696089

Where'd you hear that? Completely wrong. You can buy a house on a residency visa, let alone a PR.

by agnostium | 23rd Nov 23, 12:35pm 1700696119

It's only 183 days in the last 12 months to become ordinarily resident, so actually only 6 months. Then there are exceptions and workarounds. If you have the money and want to buy you can do it from the time you arrive (or before even).

by redcows1 | 23rd Nov 23, 7:21am 1700677291

That was me . I searched my mum and nieces houses as they just listed them. So must've been five others looking.

Edit. my bad. There must've been 50 others, silly me , 50 is much better.

by IT GUY | 23rd Nov 23, 7:20am 1700677203

I have attended a few local open homes, as want to try and compute the ask price when my subdivision is done.

Saved searches is not a proxy for demand, many of my Trademe auctions get lots of watchers, does not mean a great price....

by Flying high | 23rd Nov 23, 10:28am 1700688506

Tire kickers might turn into hungry buyers. When are you planning to list, as those who miss out on the other properties will be waiting in the wings for yours possibly

by Dgm | 23rd Nov 23, 7:33am 1700678012

Vendors anxiously clicking away on their own property...hoping to hype up the views

by GetFeeling | 23rd Nov 23, 7:39am 1700678346

Not sure we can read much into a 1.9% swing. The NZ market for RE website is saturated, probably beyond sustainable levels. A slight push in advertising by any one would result in such a swing.

by IT GUY | 23rd Nov 23, 7:41am 1700678506

The summer market is so flat and slow they have nothing else to talk about????

by Whatwillhappen | 23rd Nov 23, 7:56am 1700679380

I'm amazed that anyone uses the realestate.co.nz website at all - you get much more complete coverage (read private listings as well) on Trademe. The whole thing is a giant spruik for real estate agents, who aren't actually needed to sell a house - a misconception that they rely on for continued business.

Also - when reporting small numbers could we get analysis of whether the increase is statistically significant or not?

by rico | 23rd Nov 23, 8:59am 1700683178

When trying to find previous sales price I find them better. When other sites have TBC they'll usually have it. Other than that it's TM

by 1689 Baptist | 23rd Nov 23, 7:55am 1700679329

How many of us actually use realestate.co.nz to search for property? All this tells us is that they are losing their already slim market share.

by IT GUY | 23rd Nov 23, 7:58am 1700679537

I tend to use OneWoof as they show land zoning, house size etc etc, quite useful if you looking for subdivision possibility, also the mapping system is IMHo better then trademe, but I use that for the initial for sale search. I use realestate.co.nz maybe 1 in 100 searches so for me its not a player

by 1689 Baptist | 23rd Nov 23, 8:50am 1700682618

Oneroof and Trade me for me. Better interfaces and also private listings. I spoke to an agent earlier in the year who told me less than 2% of successful sales are reached through realestate.co.nz. Nearly all sales have initial contact through trademe now. It makes you question the value that RE agents add...

by rico | 23rd Nov 23, 9:22am 1700684539

I can't believe the land of number 8 wire and gorse pockets still put up with agents. It could all be done through the TM app.

by interesting1234 | 23rd Nov 23, 1:00pm 1700697615

Try propertyvalue.co.nz for sales history. Easy to see when a flip has been done and look for any work done at the same time period to see the level of work done and gague if there's bee someones mate do a crap cashie job

by Nellbell | 23rd Nov 23, 3:17pm 1700705870

I use Real Estate.co.nz only because Trademe splits the tiny little towns in my area ( which are Districts) so searching for new property on Trademe takes three times as long. Occasionally look at Trademe in case private listings show up, but my experience has been that private listings have higher prices - nobody to temper the vendor expectations I guess.

by Averageman | 23rd Nov 23, 3:36pm 1700707006

Also of recent not Trademe requires you to log in and be tracked to access all the information. Some found that inconvenient or didn't want that so found other products.

by oscar87 | 23rd Nov 23, 7:57am 1700679474

Man it is insane what the nz property industry will report on...

by Blackbeard | 23rd Nov 23, 8:55am 1700682953

It just shows you how pathetic the nz economy has become. Property with a few extras tacked on.

by BlackKrim | 23rd Nov 23, 11:59am 1700693965

It is insane when it is considered by many to be an "industry".

by malamah | 23rd Nov 23, 8:02am 1700679745

Aren’t they offering a $100k prize for anybody who uses the search function on their site? That’d do it.

by Nzdan | 23rd Nov 23, 8:58am 1700683130

Oh you beat me to it!!

by DavidJ | 23rd Nov 23, 9:19am 1700684344

yeah was going to say the same thing too .. buying clicks .. lol

by Zwifter | 23rd Nov 23, 9:37am 1700685441

Yep its working for me currently got 15 places from the clues given on my watchlist.

by Nzdan | 23rd Nov 23, 8:58am 1700683113

Wouldn't have something to do with the promotion they're currently running where you visit the website, register, save a search and you go into the draw to win $100k?

by Whatwillhappen | 23rd Nov 23, 9:13am 1700683986

I'll take $100k from the NZREI any day of the week. Thanks for the tip. Rack up one more search.

Edit: if I win I'll have to find a $100k property to buy, then sell it at a loss to rinse the money.

by Yvil | 23rd Nov 23, 10:01am 1700686916

That's a great metric avg searches per listing. It shows demand compared to supply really well! Also well done for comparing to the same month a year ago to mitigate seasonal factors

by Yvil | 23rd Nov 23, 10:17am 1700687860

Oops, apologies for writing a positive post, I've only just read the other comments. I didn't realise it was cynical day today.

by Retired-Poppy | 23rd Nov 23, 10:31am 1700688668

Please afford the Hall Monitor some privacy to "indulge" in a bit of conversation with himself....

by Thats All Folks | 23rd Nov 23, 8:49pm 1700725756

🤣

by TronMVP | 23rd Nov 23, 10:30am 1700688649

Every day is a cynical day here

by Retired-Poppy | 23rd Nov 23, 10:33am 1700688824

...that's your own interpretation. Dark clouds for some mean clear skies and opportunities for patient others :)

by Amokk | 23rd Nov 23, 10:44am 1700689474

Please indulge us with why you believe it's cynical to hope house prices return to some sense of a rational level.

by Yvil | 23rd Nov 23, 11:15am 1700691329

Here a couple of examples of cynical posts today:

by Speedmax | 23rd Nov 23, 5:40am

The so-called green shoots have withered and all that’s left is straw, which spruikers will clutch at.

by redcows | 23rd Nov 23, 7:21am

That was me . I searched my mum and nieces houses as they just listed them. So must've been five others looking.

by Retired-Poppy | 23rd Nov 23, 11:45am 1700693154

Did you accuse Greg Ninness of being cynical? - NO.

"Anyone seeing green shoots in the latest housing figures has probably been smoking them"

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/123305/anyone-seeing-green-shoots-l…

by agnostium | 23rd Nov 23, 12:37pm 1700696229

Teacher's pet would never say anything bad about Greg.

by Yvil | 23rd Nov 23, 2:21pm 1700702473

Greg? Greg Niness? Why would I say bad things about him?

by Retired-Poppy | 23rd Nov 23, 3:34pm 1700706854

....conveniently obtuse.

by Amokk | 23rd Nov 23, 2:12pm 1700701975

Was this an attempt to answer my "Please indulge us with why you believe it's cynical to hope house prices return to some sense of a rational level." question Yvil?

by ChrisOfNoFame | 23rd Nov 23, 10:29am 1700688594

Remember the old adage that house prices double every 10 years?

Well, at the moment, it is more like every 20 years.

This is derived from the last sales date/price and current date/price using this formula:

((Curr Value / Last value) ^ (1 / years) - 1 ) x 100.

If the answer is around 3.5% then the Rule of 72 means around 20 years.

David, that'd be a useful feature on your Auctions Results page ... Might give people pause for thought [evil grin]

by ChrisOfNoFame | 23rd Nov 23, 10:35am 1700688907

Onewoof is crap at the moment. They've changed it so you can't open images in a new tab to zoom in. Makes it impossible to read the dimensions on the plans on a small laptop. (I've let them know.)

The realestate.co.nz site could be improved if they put the provisional sales price on a saved property when it is sold, i.e.just saying "withdrawn" isn't helpful.

by Zwifter | 23rd Nov 23, 10:50am 1700689848

At least Oneroof looks way more accurate for price estimations, Homes is total rubbish for my property now, they are dreaming.

by ChrisOfNoFame | 24th Nov 23, 10:29am 1700774980

So you're basing the accuracy of their estimates on a sample set of one?

by dumbthoughts | 23rd Nov 23, 11:08am 1700690881

What a BS, easily manipulatable metric.

It's like relying on 'website hits' or 'social media views' as a measure of performance - far to easy to game either with buying cheap engagement/traffic or overlooking the fact that so much digital activity is fraudulent/bot/non human.

by Ollies1 | 23rd Nov 23, 11:24am 1700691895

So what? Click numbers does not equal real demand levels...

by kwbrn | 23rd Nov 23, 12:32pm 1700695936

Agree. More people tire kicking. More unemployed, more people needing to sell and comparing prices.

by Averageman | 23rd Nov 23, 3:09pm 1700705381

If only they listed actual pricing vs the "price by speculation" that seems so common.

by Chairman Moa | 23rd Nov 23, 2:16pm 1700702169

It's plausible that more people doing more searches to find out their house values before selling of and heading across the ditch??

by Averageman | 23rd Nov 23, 2:22pm 1700702555

They have a promotion on were you create an account, list and save some searches and you go in the draw to win $100k to be used on a house purchase. Search your way to 100k.

by huttman | 23rd Nov 23, 2:46pm 1700704014

Wellington jumped 47.7%

by Wrong John | 23rd Nov 23, 2:58pm 1700704714

Yes. Will be lots of Wellingtonians looking to relocate next year. Doing their homework perhaps? Personally, I'd like things to flatline for a year or two. Single digits pa at most.

by ChrisOfNoFame | 24th Nov 23, 10:32am 1700775153

Flatline for a year or two? Try 20 to 30.

See my comments on the effects of the NPS-UD, MDRS, re-zoning, etc. (As yet, not a single person has been able show that my analysis is wrong.)

by Dale Smith | 23rd Nov 23, 5:06pm 1700712369

Just because people slow down to look at a car crash, does not mean they are interested in buying the car.

by agnostium | 23rd Nov 23, 8:51pm 1700725917

Classic 😂

by tronic | 24th Nov 23, 5:30pm 1700800259

Comment of the week

by wingman | 26th Nov 23, 5:04pm 1700971466

QV property price has ticked up, new government - anyone who's bought in the last year or so is smarter than the average bear.