First time buyer positive about the property market

PHOTO: MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Prospective first time home buyers Eleanor Wenman and partner Pascarn Dickinson (L) put their house hunting on ice during the lockdown, but are positive the market will become favourable

Wellington first home buyer Eleanor Wenman had to put her property hunt on ice during the lockdown, but she remains optimistic the property market could turn in her favour when coronavirus restrictions ease.

Wenman and her partner, Pascarn Dickinson, began looking for a property in Wellington late last year.

“When you’d go to open homes, there’d be lines out the door,” she said.

They were looking at buying their first home in Johnsonville, Khandallah, South Karori and the Hutt Valley, she said.

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“But a week or two before the lockdown happened, we could see the lines were just dropping dramatically. Over alert level 4, there’s just nothing happening.”

She said the future for housing remained uncertian and she was taking real estate agent’s advice with a grain of salt.

“On the one hand, we have all the real estate agents emails saying it’s going to be fine, but then you’ve got the economists saying it will drop of later this year.”