Kiwis are behind New Zealand’s runaway house prices, not buyers from China or Singapore

Ultra-low interest rates and post-pandemic demand have pushed house prices up 23 per cent in the past year, prompting new regulation to curb speculation

While buyers from Japan, Singapore and the Philippines are keen, most supply is being snapped up by New Zealanders owning multiple properties

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Median prices for residential property across New Zealand increased from NZ$635,000 in February last year to a record NZ$780,000. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:00am, 26 Mar 2021Updated: 9:49am, 28 Mar 2021

Last year, as thousands of New Zealanders lost their jobs amid the Covid-19 pandemic, real estate agent Shane Robinson – who is based in the country’s seventh-biggest city, Dunedin – was busier than ever.

“It was completely unprecedented. I’ve been in the industry for 15 years and I’d never seen anything like this. The housing market obviously dipped when we first went into lockdown [in March last year], but it came back so much faster than it went down [after the country was declared free of Covid-19 in June] and has grown exponentially ever since,” Robinson said.

“A few years ago, if you bought a property and sold it in the next three years, you’d done well if you broke even. Now, we’re seeing that you can buy a property and sell it six weeks later and make NZ$30,000 (US$21,100). It’s very much a seller’s market.”

It isn’t just Dunedin feeling the heat – the housing market is on fire all across New Zealand. But while there has been anger in the past over foreign buyers who were seen as driving prices up, real estate agents speaking to This Week in Asia say local demand has led the surge, thanks to ultra-low interest rates, a rapid recovery from the pandemic, and cashed-up Kiwis wanting to invest because they cannot travel.

Returning New Zealanders and wealthy investors have capitalised on the situation, contributing to house prices jumping 23 per cent in the past 12 months, far ahead of wage growth.

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