The price of lifestyle property continues to reach new highs as city dwellers compete for rural properties, according to the latest rural sales figures from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
Wednesday, July 20th 2005, 8:29AM
by The Landlord
The lifestyle property median selling price for June reached a new record figure of $355,000, compared with $345,000 in May and the equivalent figure for June 2004 of $285,000.
Real Estate Institute vice president Murray Cleland said demand for lifestyle properties remained keen and although sales during June at 593 were down on May’s 698 and the June 2004 figure of 645, “there is no shortage of buyers for lifestyle blocks and the market for these properties is enjoying the best of both worlds – strong rural and residential property markets pushing values higher.”
It was a similar story with farm prices in June, according to Cleland, as a shortage of properties drove prices up with the national farm median price up from $930,000 in May to $937,000 in June, well up on the June 2004 median of $710,000.
Farm sales were well down at 208 for June compared with 274 in May, but comparable with the June 2004 sales of 212 properties, “reflecting the seasonal slowdown in sales at this time of year.”
Cleland said that with prices up and sales down, the market belonged to the sellers with consequent firming in prices.
