Lifestyle purchases surge across the ditch

According to analysis, there were 849 lifestyle properties sold across the month compared with 594 over the same period last year – a 42.9 per cent uplift.

For REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell, the data simply backs up anecdotes being heard across the industry.

“For a while now we’ve been hearing stories of people purchasing lifestyle properties as a result of COVID-19 and now we’ve seen this translate in the data.”

“Over the last few months, sales of lifestyle properties have been increasing, and last month saw the highest number of lifestyle properties sold in a July month ever,” Ms Norwell added.

She said that as soon as the country went into lockdown, agents started receiving calls from people wanting more space and lifestyle options, given people were spending more time at home.

“Now that technology makes working from home so viable, COVID has been a strong catalyst for many people to make the leap they’ve been talking about for years,” the chief executive observed.

The increasing interest in lifestyle properties is true country-wide, influencing all regions bar Marlborough (which saw sales volumes flat) and Nelson.

Ms Norwell said it was an “incredible result” that every region that saw an annual increase in lifestyle property sales had managed double-digit growth.

“In fact, interest levels in lifestyle properties were so high in the Manawatu/Wanganui region that it was the highest number of lifestyle properties ever sold in Manawatu/Wanganui in a single month since records began,” she highlighted.

“Additionally, sales volumes on the West Coast saw triple figure increases, with the number of lifestyle properties up by 157.1 per cent when compared with July last year.”

Demand is also filtering through to prices, with July seeing a significant increase in the median price per hectare of lifestyle properties.

Across the country, the median price of lifestyle blocks lifted 4.1 per cent.

Ms Norwell is not surprised.

“Now that the country has gone back into ‘lockdown 2.0’, it will be interesting to see if there is even greater demand going forward and whether prices continue to rise as we head towards the warmer months of the year, especially as there is an increased interest from offshore buyers looking towards opportunities in New Zealand,” she considered.