The Government’s First Home Grant coupled with new first home loan criteria available from October 1 has sparked a mass influx of buyers into the market, says Lodge Real Estate managing director Jeremy O’Rourke.
“The government’s new scheme which lowered first-home loan deposit requirements to five percent kicked in from October 1 and has had a great uptake in Hamilton. The result is that we’ve seen a mass influx of first-home buyers coming into the lower end of the city’s market,” O’Rourke said.
“This heightened first-home buyer activity has sent ripples through other segments of the residential market. Homeowners in lower brackets are seeing this as an opportunity to sell and trade up.”
Hamilton mortgage broker Jordan Cameron of Total Mortgages said he has also seen a major impact on the market as a result of the government’s new scheme.
“Before October 1, the average time to turn around a home valuation as part of a bank loan process was four days. We’ve seen that timeframe blown out to two weeks,” Cameron said.
“We’re pinning this change squarely on the increased first-home buyer activity in the market due to the sheer volume of new valuations being requested.”
O’Rourke said the heightened buyer activity in Hamilton’s residential housing market means there continues to be a shortage of homes available for sale.
“While the Hamilton market is experiencing this increase in demand, there’s a lack of quality homes being listed. If this continues into late spring and early summer we will certainly see home prices hold steady and possibly increase over the coming months.
“Hamilton’s median is nearing the $600,000 mark and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that record broken soon,” he said.
According to listings on realeststate.co.nz there were only 638 homes available for sale in Hamilton at the start of October. This compares with 662 at the start of August.
Hamilton’s median increased to a record $597,000 in September from $575,000 in August, according to Real Estate Institute of NZ figures.
A total of 245 homes were sold in Hamilton during September, compared with 284 in August and 248 in September 2018.
For the latest REINZ market data for Hamilton, visit www.reinz.co.nz.
