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
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….
Ah it must be all those extra dead shoots (views) showing up
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.
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.
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...
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.
Where'd you hear that? Completely wrong. You can buy a house on a residency visa, let alone a PR.
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).
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.
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....
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
Vendors anxiously clicking away on their own property...hoping to hype up the views
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.
The summer market is so flat and slow they have nothing else to talk about????
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?
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
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.
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
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...
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.
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
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.
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.
Man it is insane what the nz property industry will report on...
It just shows you how pathetic the nz economy has become. Property with a few extras tacked on.
It is insane when it is considered by many to be an "industry".
Aren’t they offering a $100k prize for anybody who uses the search function on their site? That’d do it.
Oh you beat me to it!!
yeah was going to say the same thing too .. buying clicks .. lol
Yep its working for me currently got 15 places from the clues given on my watchlist.
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?
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.
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
Oops, apologies for writing a positive post, I've only just read the other comments. I didn't realise it was cynical day today.
Please afford the Hall Monitor some privacy to "indulge" in a bit of conversation with himself....
🤣
Every day is a cynical day here
...that's your own interpretation. Dark clouds for some mean clear skies and opportunities for patient others :)
Please indulge us with why you believe it's cynical to hope house prices return to some sense of a rational level.
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.
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…
Teacher's pet would never say anything bad about Greg.
Greg? Greg Niness? Why would I say bad things about him?
....conveniently obtuse.
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?
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]
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.
At least Oneroof looks way more accurate for price estimations, Homes is total rubbish for my property now, they are dreaming.
So you're basing the accuracy of their estimates on a sample set of one?
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.
So what? Click numbers does not equal real demand levels...
Agree. More people tire kicking. More unemployed, more people needing to sell and comparing prices.
If only they listed actual pricing vs the "price by speculation" that seems so common.
It's plausible that more people doing more searches to find out their house values before selling of and heading across the ditch??
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.
Wellington jumped 47.7%
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.
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.)
Just because people slow down to look at a car crash, does not mean they are interested in buying the car.
QV property price has ticked up, new government - anyone who's bought in the last year or so is smarter than the average bear.
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