Real estate agents report seeing more buyer interest in open homes, more buyers following through on sales, more auction activity and more first home buyers in the BNZ-REINZ survey for July.
A net 14% of agents surveyed at the beginning of this week viewed prices as rising, up from a net 5% in early June who saw prices as falling.
The survey found agents believed the market was balanced for the first time since the survey began in April, meaning agents believed buyers were just as motivated as sellers. The previous three surveys found buyers were less motivated than sellers, suggesting the market was in favour of the buyers.
"The increased interest appears to be coming largely from first home buyers with a net 30% of agents reporting increased interest from new home seekers, but a net 1% reporting a decrease in interest from investors," BNZ economist Tony Alexander said in releasing the survey of responses from 742 agents in the REINZ.
See the full survey results here.
The opt-in email survey sent to more than 10,000 agents in the REINZ has been running since April.
Alexander said it was too early to assess the seasonality inherent in the survey results, but the relatively strong figures shown in earlier this week despite bad weather suggested the results were not seasonal.
He said the survey showed quite a sharp turnaround in sentiment in the last four weeks.
"At a local level perceptions of prices rising are very strong in most parts of Auckland and Christchurch, but there are also strong perceptions of prices falling still in the likes of Tauranga, New Plymouth and Invercargill," Alexander said.
A net 23% of agents reported more people going through open homes, up from 10% in June.
"Not only are more people appearing to show interest in buying a property but June was a month when a lot of extra people came out of the woodwork compared with May’s increase," Alexander said.
He cited perceptions about a lack of new housing supply as a factor in the strength.
(Updated with chart, link to attached full report and more comments)
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