first home buyers

PHOTO: FHBs- (First Home Buyers). FILE

In the three months to 30 September, FHBs represented 26.4% of all buyers with the completion of about 5,700 transactions. During the same three-month period CoreLogic’s House Price Index revealed New Zealand’s average property value increased 4.8% to $950,229, up 27.8% for the 12 months to the end of September. Values rose a further 2.1% in October.

CoreLogic NZ Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson said the proportion of FHBs in the market between July and September 2021 was well above the long-term average of 21.8% and surpassed the previous benchmark of 25.6% set in the third quarter of 2020. “We have to acknowledge that the underlying number of transactions has been disrupted by COVID and the lockdowns over August/September, so we need to take a little extra care when interpreting market share figures. However, it’s safe to say FHBs are very active in the market. The number of deals they were involved with in Q3 was the highest for the third quarter of any year since 2015, except for the same period last year, when we saw the figures ‘artificially’ pushed up due to the post-lockdown bounce.”

Further insights from this report include:

  • On average a FHB requires 10.5 years to save a deposit.
  • Auckland FHBs spent a median $900,500 in Q3 2021 to get into the market compared to those in Invercargill, who spent $382,000.
  • Standalone houses accounted for 72% of FHB purchases in Q3 2021 – down sharply from the full-year figure of 78% in 2020.
  • FHBs have purchased relatively more flats (commonly a property with a shared wall that isn’t an apartment), with this property type now accounting for 18% of their activity, up from 14% last year.
  • The median price paid by FHBs in Q3 2021 was $660,000, up from the figure of $565,000 for 2020 as a whole, but lower than Q2 2021’s number of $685,000 – when houses were a larger share of their purchases.

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: NZ First Home Buyers REPORT – November 2021

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