Steady she goes

VICKI HOLDER checks out how the market’s been behaving in some of the North Island’s real estate hotspots.

Monday, January 24th 2005, 2:01AM

by Vicki Holder

Healthy activity in the Auckland city residential property market during the holiday period bodes well for another good summer, according to Bayleys’ Auckland manager Kirsty Stephenson.

She says three of her city consultants worked non-stop over Christmas and haven’t managed to take any days off.

"There were a lot of people from out of town looking to buy," says Stephenson. "People are looking for investments and want to buy in Auckland or they’re looking for something for the children for the varsity year. So we’ve been very busy."

She says the biggest demand has been for homes in the middle market, between $300,000 to $500,000. However, there was also interest from Australians and Britons in the upper end, above $600,000.

"They’ve all come at Christmas time so we’re really lucky to have people to do the job for them."

Properties sold by Bayleys in the holiday period include a $4.5 million property in Remuera, bought by some Australians "who had just popped over for the holidays". Stephenson says: "We were lucky we happened to be ‘Johnny on the Spot’."

She says activity during the traditional slow holiday period has been much better than she thought. "I’m very positive about the coming summer season. The phone is ringing hot. And we’re talking to some people with some really good stock. I’ve been surprised it’s quite this early. Plus, it’s election year, which is always good for real estate. Certainly, going on what’s happened so far over Christmas, we’ve got some good momentum going."

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