Elite AgentINDUSTRY NEWSNEW ZEALANDReal Estate News

New Zealand sees flood of first home buyers over September quarter

First Home Buyers made up a quarter of the total property purchases in New Zealand during the September quarter, according to figures from CoreLogic.

CoreLogic’s Buyer Classification series also found that mortgaged investors (multiple property owners) made up 26 per cent of September quarter purchases.

“First home buyers have obviously also benefitted from low mortgage rates,” the report notes, “while a willingness to switch from standalone dwellings to instead purchasing an apartment or townhouse has helped too”.

“But first home buyers have also been tapping their KiwiSaver (superannuation) funds, with more than 44,300 withdrawals for first home purchase in the year to March 2020, up from about 39,600 the previous year.”

The 25 per cent figure for first home buyers beats the previous peak of 24 per cent in 2006/07, and is the highest figure on record.

The report concludes: “Overall, investors and FHBs have continued to drive a lot of the recent momentum in property market activity, and this could remain the case over the next little while too.”

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Nathan Jolly

Nathan Jolly was an in-house journalist with Elite Agent. He worked with the company from July 2020 to December 2020.