Election not an issue for property buyers & sellers

This year’s general election may have been postponed to October 17 but a new survey reveals that the election is not a concern for a vast majority of property buyers and sellers.

Wednesday, August 19th 2020, 10:58AM

by The Landlord

According to a Trade Me Property survey released today, 82% of the 1,700 participants say the timing and result of the election will have no impact on their intention to buy or sell property.

The survey aimed to find out what New Zealanders think will happen to the New Zealand property market over the coming months in the lead up to the election on October 17.

Trade Me Property spokesperson Aaron Clancy says their data shows that activity in the property market during an election year does not differ all that much from other years.

“That said, obviously this year we have some added challenges with Covid-19 playing on people's minds.”

Outside of the election, over half (52%) of Kiwis said other events or economic factors will influence whether they buy or sell in the next 24 months.

“The ongoing impacts of Covid-19 including job security, changes to interest rates, and the possibility of a recession were the main concerns for buyers and sellers which may impact their property decisions.”

While the survey was conducted before the recent change in alert levels, Clancy says it still gives a good indication of New Zealanders’ confidence in the property market.

“New Zealanders are, overall, pretty optimistic about the property market and if we can get on top of this latest cluster and move down the alert levels we reckon that optimism will stay.”

There have been many predictions that property prices will fall due to Covid-19, but the survey shows that most New Zealanders think they will do pretty well over the rest of the year.

Well over half of those surveyed expect property prices to increase or remain the same, with 35% expecting they’ll stay the same and 27% expecting them to increase as 2020 plays out.

Clancy says these price expectations are likely to be the result of two things: property prices holding steady to date and unemployment figures which, currently, aren’t as scary as initially predicted.

“Prices have continued to rise over the past few months and, in June, we actually saw the largest annual percentage increase in prices that we’ve seen all year - with the national average asking price increasing by 7.8% on the year prior to $699,350.”

However, there were still around one-third of New Zealanders who expect to see house prices drop later in the year, he adds.

“According to our survey findings, the majority of those who think we will see prices fall expect this to happen post-election when the wage subsidies end and the country knows which way the political winds are blowing.”

Read more:

How elections impact on the market

Tags: coronavirus Covid-19 house prices housing market landlords price growth property investment Trade Me Property