Purchasers competing to own property in Tūrangi

Bayleys Tūrangi owner Zane Cozens says an incredible number of buyers are competing to buy houses in Turangi.

House prices in Tūrangi have continued to rise right throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and are up $40,000 for the year ending May 2020 with the median house selling for $285,000.

It is similar with volumes of sales. While the number of houses sold in the entire Taupō District has halved in the past 12 months, the volume of houses changing hands in Tūrangi is more or less unchanged compared to this time last year. Ninety houses sold in the year ending May 2020 while 94 houses sold in the year ending May 2019.

The one indicator that seems to be off is the days-to-sell. Days to sell in Tūrangi for May 2020 was 51 days compared to 33 days in April this year, and 44 days in May last year.

Bayleys Tūrangi owner Zane Cozens says there is currently an exceptional level of buyer inquiry, starting from when the country went into Covid-19 alert level three. He suspects the interest in Tūrangi property is due to affordability and lifestyle choice.

"First-home buyers and rental investors are leading the charge on purchasing. Couples from Taupō are making the move to the southern end of the lake in unprecedented numbers," said Zane.

He says housing stock levels are at the lowest level he has seen in 17 years of selling real estate. The supply-demand imbalance is causing values to rise and record sales prices being set.

"We have been dealing with multi-offers and buyers are keen to place back-up offers on agreements that are conditional."

Not wanting to miss out, Zane says they are commonly seeing buyers making out-of-the-ballpark offers.

"They are coming in early with these offers and stopping the selling process in its tracks," said Zane.

Banks have been superb to deal with for residential lending, however Zane says a lack of accurate data for the south end of Lake Taupō gives a distorted view on current market trends and this makes it difficult for banks who rely too heavily on E-valuing and online valuations.

Zane says the rental market is experiencing unprecedented returns based around a short supply of stock and an oversupply of keen tenants.

"There is some concern what may happen once we reach September 1 when the last of the wage subsidies finish. Currently this Government is keeping the economy artificially buoyant with heavy borrowing and a steady dishing out of supplementary income. In effect we are living in a gloaming-like bubble of a post-Covid environment."

As for the future, Zane says he is expecting continued real estate success due to the growing population that needs to be housed and a shortage in available land to build new houses.