New year, fresh perspective
Happy New Year, 2024, the Year of the Dragon, and I wish you a year like no other.
I love the start of every year. I love the feeling of freshness, freedom, and forgiveness that comes with new beginnings, and I also love the opportunity to reflect – and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.
Every country has its own real estate signature, and New Zealand, whilst being young by international standards, certainly has one.
Property, land or whenua, and all forms of home ownership run deeply through the Kiwi psyche and dominate many of our media’s comments.
Our actual national signature can include property that reflects our surrounding environments, be they bush, sea, coastline, or community, as well as a strong social conscience and DIY as second nature.
Translations of this include countless black houses, not readily seen in other parts of the world, a history of social housing, and a massive home improvement industry.
We’ve got our own vocabulary as well. In Christchurch, that includes ‘as is, where is,’ ‘flips’, ‘EQC repairs’, and elsewhere terms like ‘first homer,’ ‘empty nester,’ ‘investor,’ and ‘affordability levels’ predominate.
But there are also some glaring changes.
Home-ownership levels are falling; prices are high, especially for those entering the market; land sizes are considered large at 500 square metres; loans are considerable; and we have a cost-of-living crisis.
For many, the remedy is embedded in help from the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’, reluctant acceptance of high levels of debt, smaller houses and apartments, intergenerational living, or a ‘why buy when I can rent?’ mindset.
The dream property in my parents’ time usually had three bedrooms (kids shared in those days), a lounge which you sat in (I won’t use the word ‘entertain’), and the backyard featured Dad’s veggie garden; in fact, it still does.
The desire to own your slice of ‘Kiwi paradise’ is still there, but along with everything else in life, there are new directions afoot.
As a realtor of nearly 30 years, I value all the learnings that transfer from a coal-face perspective. You can be party to aspirations, the culmination of dreams, and occasional disasters, and I’m engaged and deeply interested in where our remarkable signature will take all of us.
This year, I’ll no doubt see the current group of first-home buyers swell in number.
I’m expecting investors back, too, given a change in government and tax deductibility, busier auction rooms with a greater volume of listings, and potentially ‘steady as she goes’ or a small increase in prices. Hopefully, and we can never be certain, a reduction in the slide backwards of buyers not considering certain methods of construction.
Property will always be a driver for some and an anchor for others: for me, it’s a passion and a long-term love affair.