The Taupō District's median house price hit a record high of $845,000 between December and January. Photo / Getty Images
The Taupō District's median house price hit a record high of $845,000 between December and January. Photo / Getty Images
The median house price in Taupō hit a record high of $845,000 in January, up from $775,000 the month before.
The new median price is 37.4 per cent higher than at the same time just one year ago.
However, just 48 properties were sold last month, down from 84 inDecember and 79 in January last year.
Taupō was one of two districts to hit a record median price, with the Matamata-Piako District edging closer to a million at $920,000.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand Waikato regional director Neville Falconer says the nationwide move to the red setting of the Covid-19 Protection Framework, along with stricter lending requirements and rising interest rates, has meant that while vendor expectations remain high, buyers are more cautious.
"In particular, first-home buyer numbers have dwindled, likely due to changes to the CCCFA impacting lending. That said, investor numbers have increased as out-of-town buyers enter the market looking for a holiday home or a property they can rent short-term before making a permanent move."
Mike Pero Real Estate Taupō franchise owner Greg Currie says Taupō has always had a transient housing market.
"The most important thing about Taupō is it has always been able to rely on domestic tourism, rather than international. People will come in the summer, love the place and buy a house, then five years later say 'we never use that house', and sell it again.
"In the meantime, we've had a pandemic which has completely changed the world. I reckon eight out of 10 inquiries we get are from Auckland or Wellington. People just want to get out of the big cities, that includes some from places like Hamilton and Rotorua as well.
"The pandemic has taught us we can work from home very efficiently, so you don't have to actually be within driving distance of your office in Auckland, you can run it from somewhere like Taupō."
Mike Pero Real Estate Taupō franchise owner Greg Currie. Photo / Supplied
Currie says there are always fewer houses sold over the Christmas and New year period, however, stricter lending restrictions may have influenced the drop as well.
"It's also an indication of the fact there is more property on the market so people aren't making the rash decisions they were a year ago. It's supply and demand and I don't think these high prices will go away in a hurry."
Property Brokers sales manager Greg Kellick says Taupō is "a wee bit insular" from other rural service towns.
"The Taupō real estate market is driven by about 50 per cent out-of-town buyers and that is heavily driven by Auckland folk wanting to get out and ex-pats coming back home because of Covid-19 and the ongoing issues throughout the rest of the world.
"We're also finding there is some exodus out of Tauranga to Taupō. People who have retired to Tauranga 10 or 12 years ago, from Auckland, have found it's grown into a mini-Auckland itself."
"We're finding a lot of the demand is being satisfied, it's definitely still there but some parts of the market it's getting a bit slower. We haven't seen any easing of pricing but the selling of a property in a few days has certainly slowed right up. There's less fear of missing out.
"The lifestyle block market is really strong at present. A lot of the Aucklanders can obviously afford the high-end stuff and they want space. They don't want to go from a high-density, tight, urban area into the same thing. The blocks on the edge of town that are one or two acres, right up to the traditional 10 acre blocks, are being sold to them."
