Garden City gears up

Due to the earthquakes Christchurch isn’t operating on the same property cycle as the rest of the country, so while many markets have hit their peak, the Christchurch market is on a unique trajectory.

It’s an important distinction to make, says Braziers Property Management’s Tony Brazier, because if investors are investing cyclically, they need to know where Christchurch sits in that cycle.

“We are probably four and a half years into a five-year slowdown period. So we’re looking at the early signs of kicking away again, it might be the middle to the end of 2019.”

Brazier says an upturn will be due to the loosening of bank loan-to-value ratios, low interest rates and more significantly the catch up between supply and demand, after the oversupply issues caused by overbuilding after the earthquakes.