Volatility In The Lifestyle Sector

Data released today by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) shows there were 433 fewer lifestyle property sales (-22.4%) for the three months ended December 2021 than for the three months ended November 2021. Overall, there were 1,503 lifestyle property sales in the three months ended December 2021, compared to 3,120 lifestyle property sales for the three months ended December 2020 (-51.8%), and 1,936 lifestyle property sales for the three months ended November 2021.

9,610 lifestyle properties were sold in the year to December 2021, 122 (+1.3%) more than were sold in the year to December 2020. The value of lifestyle properties sold was $10.11 billion for the year to December 2021.

The median price for all lifestyle properties sold in the three months to December 2021 was $1,075,000 and was $242,000 higher compared to the three months ended December 2020 (+29.1%). The median price for Bare land Lifestyle properties sold in the three months to December 2021 was $490,000 and was $95,000 higher compared to the three months ended December 2020 (+24.1%). The median price for Farmlet Lifestyle properties sold in the three months to December 2021 was $1,300,000 and was $305,000 higher compared to the three months ended December 2020 (+30.7%).

Brian Peacocke, Rural Spokesman, at REINZ says: “Sales volumes for the three-month period ending December 2021 reflect strong volatility, with a 22% reduction in sales from the previous three-month period, and a similar reduction for the equivalent period in 2019.

Of particular interest is the following:

• sales figures for the current period are 50% of those for December 2020
• nine regions out of 13 throughout the country experienced a drop in sales from the previous month
• 11 regions out of 13 throughout the country experienced a drop in the median price from the previous month
• surprisingly, the median for the current three-month period sits at a credible high of $1,075,000,” he concludes.

Points of Interest around New Zealand include:

Northern to Central North Island

Northland sales remained almost constant for December 2021 compared to November 2021 but experienced an 8.7% drop in the median price.

Auckland sales dropped 30% in number but maintained close to par for median price.

Waikato gained 20% in sales and edged ahead in price.

Bay of Plenty/ Rotorua caved in 40% on volume but eased only marginally in price.

Gisborne/ Hawkes Bay also yielded heavily in volume as well as easing in their median price.

Lower North Island

Taranaki gained sales but dropped 17% in value.

Manawatu/ Whanganui strengthened 20% in sales but experienced a substantial 26.6% drop in the median price.

Wellington/ Wairarapa eased in both volume and price.

Upper South Island

Tasman/ Nelson/ Marlborough lost a third in volume but held close to their previous median.

Canterbury / West Coast — Canterbury lost ground slightly on sales but almost held on price, whereas West Coast edged ahead steadily on both sales numbers and price.

Lower South Island

Otago gave ground by a significant 35% on volume and eased slightly in value.

Southland almost held their number of sales but lost a substantial 28% in their median price from the previous month.

No regions recorded an increase in sales compared to December 2020, with West Coast (-14 sales) and Southland (-51 sales) observing the smallest decreases. Waikato (-294 sales) and Auckland (-275 sales) recorded the biggest decreases in sales in the three months to December 2021 compared to the three months to December 2020. Compared to the three months to November 2021, no regions recorded an increase in sales.

Thirteen regions saw the median price of lifestyle blocks increase between the three months ending December 2020 and the three months ending December 2021. The most notable examples were in Auckland (+44.0%) and Wellington (+42.0%), with the smallest increases being in the West Coast (+1.5%) and Bay of Plenty (+10.7%).

The median number of days to sell for lifestyle properties was 10 days less in the three months to December 2021 than in the three months to December 2020, sitting at 39 days. Southland (25 days) recorded the shortest number of days to sell in December 2021. West Coast (53 days) recorded the longest number of days to sell.

ENDS

Real Estate Institute of New Zealand

For more real estate information and market trends data, visit www.reinz.co.nz. For New Zealand's most comprehensive range of listings for residential, lifestyle, rural, commercial, investment and rental properties, visit www.realestate.co.nz - REINZ's official property directory website.

Editors Note:

The information provided by REINZ in relation to the lifestyle real estate market covers the most recently completed three-month period; thus, references to December 2021 refer to the period from 1 October 2021 to 31 December 2021.

From April 2021 there has been a change in the methodology for calculating rural statistics. To date, the rural statistics have referred to a Return Period which is the month in which a sale record was submitted to REINZ. Going forward, the rural statistics will refer to an Unconditional Month i.e., the month in which the sale went unconditional. This change in methodology ensures that sales that took place in April, for instance, are recorded against April even if they were submitted to REINZ late. The change also brings Rural statistics calculation into line with the Residential statistics calculation, where the Unconditional Month approach has been used successfully to calculate Residential Statistics for several years now. The Unconditional Month methodology also ensures that the most up-to-date state of the REINZ database is reported at the time the data is released with revision of prior months statistics often occurring to reflect the submission of late data or sale amendments that took place after the prior statistics release.

In addition to the calculation period change there are two additional changes to the data worth noting:

1. 12 Districts have been replaced by 13 Regions. These are consistent with the parts of the residential press release and it has been done to be consistent with regional definitions outside REINZ e.g., Statistics NZ

2. Dairy Support is a new farm category and we now have the ability to separate Lifestyle Blocks into Bareland and Farmlets.

If you have any questions regarding this change in methodology, please email statistics@reinz.co.nz.

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