PHOTO: Ashley Church
The New Zealand housing market is expected to be “relatively stable” despite the challenges faced by the likely recession in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to property commentator Ashley Church.
It comes after TradeMe’s property arm recorded a 75 per cent drop in the average number of new properties being listed after the country entered Alert Level 4.
However, the online auction site also recorded a fifty per cent spike in rentals as Airbnb owners switched to a more secure source of income.
“It’s going to be interesting, and I think anybody you talk to is going to have a different view, but from my perspective, I think the market’s going to be relatively stable,” Mr Church, the former Property Institute of New Zealand CEO told Seven Sharp.
“I think that the sorts of things that might have caused it to drop away have probably been mitigated by things like the banks putting those support measures in place by the dropping of those LVRs (Loan-to-Value ratios), which are going to make it easier for people to get back into the market, particularly young people looking to buy their first home,” Mr Church said.
He said after some banks dropped interest rates to below 3 per cent on Friday will also “make it a little bit easier for people to get into the market and also for people to keep homes they currently have.”
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