Friday 19th of December 2008

Last week I bemoaned the state of the housing market and the fact that we hadn’t seen much positive news in the November real estate numbers.

Well I feel happier this week after reading two surveys on what people are thinking about the housing market.

The key point being that many people are seeing the glass as half full and now is shaping up to be a good time to buy.

The first of the surveys was done by Landlords.co.nz and Mike Pero Mortgages, the second by ASB Bank.

A difference between the two is that the former is of investors while the latter has a more general audience including owner-occupiers.

With this difference in mind it is understandable that the Landlords.co.nz/Mike Pero one was more positive.

Two key trends to emerge are firstly, that people are getting more interested in buying residential property and can see opportunities.

The second, and slightly worrying for vendors, is that both audiences expect house prices to fall some more.

This also makes one of the other points a little more logical. More than half of the investors surveyed have increased rents in the past year, and at the same time interest rates are coming down. Both these factors are positive for investors and compensate, somewhat for the predicted lack of capital gains.

While I was unhappy with the news last week, this week I feel more positive and expect that we will see some more positive things happening in the housing market – however my caveat is don’t expect things to return to the level they were at 12 to 18 months ago. Those times are still years away. Big house price increases (some would argue any increases) are still well into the future.

The time now is for astute purchasers. Are you one of these people?