Down to Earth Real Estate

A new study released in February 2012 by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) in the USA, showed the market for green homes is expected to rapidly increase.   The report states the following… ‘Green homes comprised 17% of the overall residential construction market in 2011 and are expected to grow to between 29% and [...]

In December 2010 we experienced the lowest number of building consents issued ever since records began while in January 2011 we witnessed the beginning of a serious shortage of rental properties in the Auckland region.  The media have been quick to show the plight of people unable to secure a home to live in due [...]

If you are interested in what is happening within the housing sector in New Zealand, a report just released by the Department of Building and Housing tells some interesting facts. This first New Zealand Housing Report provides a broad overview of housing market conditions in the building and residential housing sector. It is the first [...]

It is heartening to see the real estate industry is now going to incorporate training on home sustainability into training programmes.  Read more.   As real estate agents we are at the coal face of where decisions are made therefore if we are able to offer better information to both sellers and buyers, everyone is better [...]

We are always being fed sales statistics from within the media.  It was interesting to read this week’s blog by Alistair Thompson from realestate.co.nz.  His comments were made after the following statement from QV research director Jonno Ingerson came through the media,  “the number of house sales in recent months has dropped around one third from [...]

It is with great pleasure that I now promote this website to you all. www.downtoearthre.co.nz has been designed to make it easy for you to source a range of useful information if you are considering buying, selling or making changes to your home.  As we go forward into an era where New Zealanders catch up with many [...]

These comments by Ian Keightley, NZ Real Estate Trainer came across my desktop this week… “I have been talking with a large number of realtors over the last couple of weeks and it is a very common story – properties they appraised in late 2009, when the market was moving back up again, are languishing [...]

There has been quite a bit of talk about house affordability in the news lately.  It would appear that we have reached a really high level of unaffordability once again.  Based on our household income levels we rank just in behind Australia on account of unaffordability. In Albany you may currently buy a stand alone townhouse [...]

So what is happening in the real estate industry?  What is going to happen in 2010?   I think it is really important to look at the facts if you are wanting to understand what is really  happening .  If you ask a salesperson, they will 9 times out of 10 tell you the market is really [...]

Monday 11th January 2010 According to the latest residential price movement index released by QV, New Zealand house values rose 2.8 percent over 2009, and are now only 4.9 percent below the peak of the market. The average sales price also rose to $404,671. This ends a year that showed a dramatic and somewhat unexpected [...]