WHY SELL NOW?
DANIEL COULSON CHIEF EXECUTIVE RAY WHITE NEW ZEALAND
THE COST OF HESITATION
There is a growing divide in today’ s property market, and it isn’ t between buyers and sellers.
It’ s between intention and action.
Across New Zealand, Kiwis are thinking about property. They’ re watching, modelling, recalculating. They are running scenarios on interest rates, reading headlines about oil prices, and waiting, quietly, for something that feels like certainty.
The problem is that certainty is not a market condition.
It’ s a psychological one, and right now, it is in short supply.
CAUTION, NOT COLLAPSE
This current leg of the property market’ s cycle is being defined less by stress and more by restraint.
Sales volumes are holding broadly steady, prices are largely flat, and time on market has barely shifted.
On the surface, that reads as inertia.
In reality, it reflects a market still moving, but with participants who are more deliberate, more selective and slower to commit.
Buyers have not stepped away; they are recalibrating. Generally, they are negotiating harder, taking longer, and expecting more.
Sellers, in turn, are adjusting expectations, meeting the market where it is rather than where it was. Which is what balance looks like.
THE GLOBAL OVERLAY – AND WHY IT MATTERS LESS THAN YOU THINK
There is no question that the global backdrop is influencing behaviour. Energy markets are volatile, geopolitical tensions are feeding directly into inflation, and central banks, including the Reserve Bank of New Zealand( RBNZ), are navigating a narrow path between inflation control and economic fragility.
Mortgage rates have drifted back above five per cent, and expectations for further increases are building.
In March, just under 7,900 properties changed hands nationally, almost identical to one year earlier, while values edged sideways rather than materially up or down.
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