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Our just-released Quarterly Property Market and Economic Update Report found that the first three months of 2019 delivered nearly the same property market performance as for most of 2018 – sluggish sales activity and consistent (yet controlled) value growth – with the notable exception of Auckland. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see more of the same for the rest of 2019.
I make this call for a few reasons: firstly, the macroeconomic environment remains supportive. Yes: GDP growth has slowed down and will probably ease further still. However at 2-2.5% both this year and next, that growth would still be respectable (and probably higher than Australia’s figures of perhaps 1.5-2%). The labour market is another strong foundation for property sales and prices in NZ, with unemployment low. Limited wage growth isn’t admittedly doing much to help improve that all important topic of housing affordability.
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