Townies head for the farm

Residential house sales may be looking gloomy, but that's not all that's happening in the property market.ti

Monday, May 22nd 2000, 12:00AM

by Paul McBeth

While it's easy to focus on depressed house sales - down in April to their third lowest monthly figure in the last decade - that's only part of the picture.

The latest research report from real estate firm Bayleys looks at other trends in the market, including:

The continuing shift from urban housing to rural lifestyle property. The number of lifestyle properties has gone from 40,000 nationwide in the 1970s to more than 100,000 today. Bayleys says that greater job flexibility and technological advancement means that former citydwellers can live and work from home in the country, yet still be a comfortable distance from major business centres.

Bayleys also says you can expect to see more subdivision of farms and good rural properties. That's because shared-ownership, farm park concepts, where part of a rural property is held on a unit title, are becoming increasingly popular. Bayleys says this form of ownership offers the lifestyle benefit of a rural retreat combined with the opportunity to gain economic benefit from a share of a commercial pastoral, horticulture or viticulture enterprise.

If looking at current house price trends is getting you down, scope back over the past decade. The report says that house prices in the main centres grew by 65 per cent in the 1990s and 64 per cent in smaller centres.

Five areas had sale price growth above 70 per cent over the decade: the Far North (71.5 per cent), Waitakere (70.7 per cent). Auckland City (78 per cent), Thames/Coromandel (86.9 per cent) and Hastings (73.9 per cent).

Meanwhile, mortgage bankers Cairns Lockie says it's not all bad news on the housing market as home renovators are still hard at work. Permit applications for renovations for the three months to March were ten per cent up on the same time last year at $140 million. Cairns Lockie says the real figure is even higher, with many home renovations such as painting not requiring a permit.

Paul is a staff writer for Good Returns based in Wellington.

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