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Anne Gibson Property editor of the NZ Herald

Government's Auckland Housing Accord: Where are all the houses?

5:00 AM Tuesday Jan 20, 2015

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Government has plans for 39,000 new homes in Auckland but only 350 built so far.

The AHA aims to relieve the housing shortage with 39,000 new homes, but only 350 residences have so far been built. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The Government's Auckland Housing Accord aims to relieve the city's desperate housing shortage with 39,000 new homes, but only 350 residences have so far been built in the plan's Special Housing Areas, an official has revealed.

Of those, only 20 have been a direct result of the housing accord.

Labour is accusing developers and landbankers of sitting on their hands and watching the value of their land increase instead of working to ease the crisis. Auckland Council has warned it could take action if building does not take place quickly.

Ree Anderson, Auckland Council's housing project director, disclosed the numbers when asked to respond to yesterday's survey from think-tank Demographia that showed the city is worse off than New York in terms of wages compared with house prices.

In September 2013, the Government and council agreed to the accord with a target of consenting 39,000 new homes over three years.

While 80 Special Housing Areas have been created, with a potential for 41,500 homes, construction has lagged.

Ms Anderson defended the scheme and said a platform was in place to bring thousands of new homes to Auckland.

"We estimate that around 350 homes have been completed within the 80 SHAs," she said.

"Of these 350, around 20 were consented under housing accords and Special Housing Areas Act," Ms Anderson said.

Those 20 included 18 new residences now being lived in at the Waimahia scheme at Weymouth, she said.

However, the council could not be held responsible for timeframes.

"There is always a gap between new homes being consented and them coming on to the market," she said.

Developers who fail to build could eventually lose their consent.

Housing Minister Nick Smith said the scheme was running well.

"The latest tranche brings the total number of Special Housing Areas in Auckland to 80, with a potential yield of up to 41,500 homes. This is the momentum and scale we need to improve housing affordability and supply in our largest city."

Phil Twyford, Labour's housing spokesman, said so few homes had been built because landbankers and developers were sitting on their hands and watching the value of their land increase dramatically without any incentive to build.

"It's a spectacular failure."

Auckland's only advanced SHA was Waimahia and only because of special circumstances, he said.

But Ms Anderson said even if work wasn't obvious on all 80 sites, it most certainly was happening.

"Around 70 per cent of SHAs have some level of activity happening, e.g. master planning, consenting, earthworks, houses being built. Of those not yet active, several are smaller recent SHAs and we expect activity soon," she said.

Rent-to-own home scheme finds fast fans

Stanley Caffery with his daughters (from left) Briah, Moana-Jane and Naomi. Photo / Nick Reed

Stanley Caffery thought he'd never be able to afford an Auckland house until he heard about the Special Housing Areas scheme.

He is one of 18 new residents in the city's most advanced SHA at South Auckland's Waimahia Inlet.

He bought his new two-level four-bedroom $457,000 place with only $3500 deposit around August last year and is delighted.

"It's a rent-to-own scheme," he explained of his Kohi Kai Place residence off Becker Drive, which is off Weymouth Rd.

Eventually, 282 new dwellings will be developed at the $120 million project.

Mr Caffery lives in his house with his partner and daughters Briah, 16, Naomi, 14 and Moana-Jane, 8.

New stand-alone and terraced houses have been built at Waimahia by the NZ Housing Foundation, supported by the Tindall Foundation, with the Tamaki Collective, Auckland and Onehunga Hostels Endowment Trust and Cort Community Housing helping to create the estate. Builders are now busy on other sites.

Before the election, Prime Minister John Key and Housing Minister Nick Smith visited the project and met the first residents, Lisa Myers and Wirihana Takuira.

Q&A

What is the Auckland Housing Accord?
Aims to combat the housing crisis by fast-tracking consents for new homes.

What sort of housing will it be?
Apartments, terraces and stand-alone places but between 5 per cent and 10 per cent must be affordable.

What is the definition of affordable?
No more than 75 per cent of the Auckland region Reinz median house price.

What does the scheme involve?
About 39,000 places to be consented within three years by late next year.

- NZ Herald

Duane Turner
Office: 09 811 8018
Mobile: 027 376 4806

duane.turner@abuyerschoice.com
www.waitakere.abuyerschoice.com

Waitakere & Surrounding Areas

 

Squirrel Mortgage and Property News - January 2015

With New Year (and all that eating and drinking) behind us, it's time to pen some thoughts for the year ahead.  It is similar to an article I wrote in February 2014.  Not much has changed. This month we take a look at the global economy.  We also look closer to home at what might happen to house prices and interest rates over 2015.  There's lots of 'good news' in our media so you'd be forgiven for being a wild optimist.  That's fine, but don't get too caught up in the hype. We are susceptible to global events and yet we seem largely oblivious to what is going on. Cheers,   BIG ECONOMIC TRENDS YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF We are going through uncertain times that nobody convincingly understands.  In the media we are dished up the usual succession of short-term views on the currency, growth, and interest rates, and at the moment it seems mostly good news. We're an optimistic bunch.  None of which capture the big structural issues lurking ominously in the background.  For a start, we face an ageing population, huge levels of debt, geopolitical instability, and no real wage growth in developed countries for over 20 years.  This has the potential to bite and bite hard, I'm just not sure when. IS 2015 SET FOR A MARKET CORRECTION? At some point we will see a market correction.  It's a natural part of a capitalist system.  No amount of political meddling can prevent it, eventually.  The timing is hard to predict because politicians (and those reliant on maintaining the status quo) will kick the can down the road for as long as they are able.  However, a market correction (aka crisis) is inevitable.  Could we see it in 2015 and if so, are you ready?   WILL HOUSE PRICES INCREASE IN 2015? In the Auckland region we have a shortage of properties for sale, high immigration, and money coming in from China.  All of these factors along with low interest rates and increased rating valuations will fuel further house price appreciation through the first half of 2015, particularly in the central isthmus.  As we said back in October, expect to see more property related headlines in the Herald about record house prices in Auckland. MORTGAGES RATE FORECAST FOR 2015 The good news is mortgage rates will stay low this year.  The driver will be weak commodity prices killing-off any potential for inflation.  The fall in dairy prices alone will reduce our income by $7 billion this year.  Meanwhile over the ditch a 50% drop in Iron Ore prices has wiped $16 billion from their income.  Oil prices (and commodity prices generally) are dropping so there is no inflation to speak of.   Eventually when interest rates do increase, it wont be by much.  Our view is that lower than normal rates are here to stay and we've been consistently saying that for a while now. TIME TO SET SOME FINANCIAL GOALS? Have you ignored money for too long?  Do you have a plan, or are you just living day-to-day hoping that house prices will increase?  Does your job suck?  Could 2015 be the year to set some goals around getting financial fitter? We don't have the answers, but we do believe that having a plan and putting it into action is a great start. PROPERTY INVESTOR - THE DOWNSIDE OF LEVERAGE A few clients have rediscovered recently that it isn't always easy to release equity when selling property. I've written about this a number of times, but it really needs to be emphasized again and again.  Leverage combined with lack of cash flow is the biggest risk for investors and it materializes quickly.   When an owner sells a property the bank can review your overall financial situation and can unilaterally decide to take the full sales proceeds.           Whenever you buy a property you can feel like the odds are stacked against you. At Squirrel our impartial advice, influence and insider knowledge even out those odds. We'll help you sort out the deals from the duds, get you the inside word and go into bat for you with the banks (not with an actual bat, although we've come close). Disclosure Statement Unsubscribe Update preferences View email in browser 36-38 College Hill, Freeman's Bay, Auckland, New Zealand 1010. +64 9 376 9688 +64 9 376 9689 support@squirrel.co.nz Copyright 2013 Squirrel Mortgages. All Rights Reserved.

Auckland values to rise throughout 2015

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Anne Gibson

Property editor of the NZ Herald

Auckland values to rise throughout 2015

12:00 PM Wednesday Jan 14, 2015

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Auckland values are now 39.4 per cent higher than the previous peak of 2007. Photo / Chris Gorman

Auckland house values rose at almost twice the rate of the rest of New Zealand, up 9.8 per cent or $68,309 in the last year, and are being picked to shoot up further this year.

Quotable Value has just released its latest statistics which it said were powered by CoreLogic and that showed Auckland value rises sped up towards the end of the year, up 4.2 per cent in the final three months alone.

Auckland values are now 39.4 per cent higher than the previous peak of 2007.

Auckland house values jumped from $693,549 last December to $761,858 last month, QV said.

National house values rose 4.9 per cent or $22,652 last year, from $466,022 last December to $488,674 last month.

Jonno Ingerson, director of CoreLogic, said the outlook for this year was for values to continue up.

Sales turnover would remain buoyant in the first few months but the lack of listings would continue to constrain the market, he said.

"Given strong migration, continuing low interest rates, a shortage of housing and good consumer confidence, values are likely to keep increasing in Auckland throughout this year. There may be modest increases in some of the other main centres, but most smaller centres are likely to remain steady."

The Reserve Bank says it is prepared to introduce further measures to slow down the market if necessary, he noted.

"Given that during the last three months of 2014, Auckland values rose faster than they did during the 2003 to 2007 boom, and some of the other main centres are also rising again, the Reserve Bank is likely to consider what action to take," Ingerson said.

"This may include further restraints on bank lending given that interest rates are unlikely to rise until later this year."

QV said values in the old Auckland City area rose 10.4 per cent from December 2013 to last month and 5.3 per cent in the last three months of 2014 and QV said that illustrated the fast acceleration rate in the last quarter of the year.

Waitakere City homes values rose 10.7 per cent year on year and 4.4 per cent since the beginning of October.

North Shore City values rose 8.9 per cent year on year and 3.3 per cent in the last three months of the year.

Manukau City values rose 9.5 per cent year on year and 3.3 per cent since October; Papakura District values were up 10.6 per cent and 5.6 per cent and Rodney District 7 per cent and 0.9%.

Andrea Rush, QV national spokesperson, said values did not go up smoothly.

"After a slow start to the year following the introduction of the LVR speed limits, values picked up in February and March but then following four interest rate hikes during March and July value increases plateau-ed.

The prospect of further interest rate rises in the lead up to the election seemed to cause some uncertainty as to whether the market had peaked and this led to a slowdown in the market during the middle of the year.

"For Auckland and Christchurch, value increases slowed while in some other centres such as Wellington, Hamilton and Dunedin saw a decrease in values during this period.

However, once the election was over and interest rates rises were put on hold, there was a surge of new listings and activity with the coming of spring and values began to tick upwards again in most of the main centres.

"The return of relatively low interest rates offered by the banks with cash incentives coupled with record migration levels has since led to a strong reacceleration of values in the Auckland," she said.

Christchurch values increased 3.2 per cent year on year and 1.8 per cent since October.

Value increases in Christchurch City have slowed somewhat as the number of homes repaired increases and new homes coming onto the market is seeing supply being to keep up with demand, QV said.

QV CoreLogic 2014 in Review Media Release Jan 12 2014

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Kind regards,

Duane Turner
Office: 09 811 8018
Mobile: 027 376 4806

duane.turner@abuyerschoice.com
www.waitakere.abuyerschoice.com

Waitakere & Surrounding Areas

 

Inventory of homes for sale falls while asking prices remain high

http://unconditional.co.nz/blog/inventory-of-homes-for-sale-falls/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+unconditionalconz+%28Unconditional.co.nz%29

Inventory of homes for sale falls while asking prices remain high

Posted on: January 7th, 2015 | Filed in Featured, NZ Property Report

House sellers benefit further as inventory of homes for sale falls while asking prices remain high

The average asking price of houses for sale in December remained at high levels across the country, while inventory of available homes for sale declined reaching record low levels in Auckland. Overall, the latest monthly data from Realestate.co.nz indicates that the NZ property market continues to favour sellers, and increasingly so.

While the national average asking price in December of $480,815 was slightly down on November, a fall of 3.4%, it was still 7% up on the same time a year ago. Meanwhile in Auckland, the average asking price of $731,083 was only marginally below the all time record of $731,588 set in November. The December average asking prices in Wellington and Canterbury were $462,511 and $450,919 respectively.

The more dramatic indice in December was the shrinking inventory of homes for sale across the country, which fell to its lowest level since November 2013.

Inventory is expressed as a theoretical measure of the number of weeks it would take to sell all unsold housing stock on the market at a given point in time. The long-term national average is 36 weeks, however in December inventory fell to just 24.5 weeks of stock, with 15 of 19 regions experiencing falls in available property levels.

Auckland drove the fall in inventory, registering an all time low of 10.8 weeks of stock in December, a 21% fall on November, and a 13% drop on the same month in 2013. Bay of Plenty also saw a new record low of 31 weeks.

The CEO of Realestate.co.nz Brendon Skipper says “the shortage in the number of homes for sale, especially in the three main centres, underlines the favorable environment house sellers enjoy as they seek to maximise the value of their homes on the property market. In total we now have just 37,537 homes for sale in New Zealand, which is the lowest since September 2013.”

As per the seasonal trend, December was a quiet month for new listings with just 8,283 new homes coming on the market across the country, 39% down on November though slightly up, by 3.4%, on the same month in 2013.

The total of number of homes that were listed for sale in 2014 was 128,049, which was 2.8% down on 2013.

“The number of new listings tends to remain low through January, however we do expect to see a significant lift of homes coming on to the market in February and March this year, which will help to ease the current low levels of inventory that we are experiencing,” says Mr Skipper.

Other Graphs:

 

For Media Enquiries, please contact:

Brendon Skipper, CEO, Realestate.co.nz | +64 21 542 607

A full copy to the Press Release is available here – download now.

Notes:

Truncated mean The monthly asking price for new listings presented in this report utilises the measure of ‘truncated mean’. This measure is judged to be a more accurate measure of the market price than average price as it statistically removes the extremes that exist within any property market that can so easily introduce a skew to traditional average price figures. The truncated mean used in this report removes the upper 10% and the lower 10% of listings in each data set.

Methodology The realestate.co.nz data is compiled from new listings coming onto the market from the more than 1,000 licensed real estate offices across NZ, representing more than 97% of all offices. With an average monthly level of over 11,000 new listings, the realestate.co.nz data provides the largest monthly sample on the residential property market.

Seasonally adjustment The core data is seasonally adjusted to better represent the core underlying trend of the property market in NZ. In preparing this seasonally adjusted data Realestate.co.nz is grateful for the assistance of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) who use an X12 ARIMA methodology to calculate seasonally adjusted data.

Background to Realestate.co.nz Realestate.co.nz Ltd is the official online property listing company of the New Zealand real estate industry, currently hosting over 100,000 listings, covering this portfolio of residential property for sale and rent, commercial property for sale and lease, rural properties and farms, as well as businesses for sale.  The raw property report data is accessible here as an Excel spreadsheet enabling anyone to analyse the raw data and establish any trends or observations. Usage rights are governed under attribution to the source of the data being Realestate.co.nz.

From unconditional blog.

 

Kind regards,

Duane Turner
Office: 09 811 8018
Mobile: 027 376 4806

duane.turner@abuyerschoice.com
www.waitakere.abuyerschoice.com

Waitakere & Surrounding Areas

 

Why do I need a Certificate of Inspection or COI?

The official certificate of inspection must be issued upon completion of the home inspection to be completed in accordance with the New Zealand Standard for Residential Property Inspection (NZS 4306:2005) If you have not been issued with a certificate of inspection then your report is not in accordance with NZS 4306:2005. 

 

Kind regards,

Duane Turner
Office: 09 811 8018
Mobile: 027 376 4806

duane.turner@abuyerschoice.com
www.waitakere.abuyerschoice.com

Waitakere & Surrounding Areas

 

What does NZS 4306:2005 refer to?

Because there is no legislation or accreditation process for home inspectors in New Zealand. Standards New Zealand has developed a standard for the inspection of residential property called NZS 4306:2005 Residential Property Inspection. It introduces consistency and reliability into the inspection of residential properties and sets out the minimum requirements for the visual inspection of residential buildings, and for the preparation of the appropriate property inspection reports. A Buyer’s Choice Home Inspectors inspect and report on much more than the minimum standards and it shows in our reports.

Kind regards,

Duane Turner
Office: 09 811 8018
Mobile: 027 376 4806

duane.turner@abuyerschoice.com
www.waitakere.abuyerschoice.com

Waitakere & Surrounding Areas