Welcome to Key Real Estate's monthly Property Report. We'll look at properties for sale in Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty and across the country for February 2021 compared to prior periods.
Annual property values continued to increase across the country. While our previous Property Report showed a slight cooling in December to January prices, February delivered increased month on month values compared to January.
New Zealand's median house price rose to $780,000, up from $635,000 or 22.8% compared to a year ago. Bay of Plenty's median price now sits at $848,250, up an impressive 26.8% annually and 10.6% from January 2021. The Rotorua District was a significant contributor, climbing to a new record median house price of $617,000 - up an impressive 21.7% compared to February 2021.
Sales volume nationally was up 14.6% month on month, recovering from the slight dip in activity during January. Trends were mixed in Rotorua and Bay of Plenty, with Real Estate volumes increasing month on month but falling year on year.
The speed at which properties are selling is still high - summing up the mood in the property market at the moment. Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ noted, "The unrelenting pace of property sales continued in February, with a 14.6% uplift on sales volumes compared to the same time last year; the highest number of properties sold for the month of February in 14 years. It's highly likely that some of this uplift can be attributed to both investors and owner-occupiers looking to purchase ahead of the LVR restrictions coming back into effect in March and the slight uplift in listings we've seen over the last couple of months."
Neville Falconer, REINZ Regional Director, made the same observation regarding the Bay of Plenty Region. "Demand for good properties has remained high and purchasers are quick to act on new listings with median days to sell down to 30 days, from 45 days in February 2020 – this is the lowest median days to sell for a February month on record. Access to finance is still difficult, particularly for first time buyers or purchasers with low equity. Looking forward, we would expect prices to remain under pressure unless we can see an uplift in supply."
Remember to have a look at our current listings for all of our properties for sale in Rotorua.