Lifestyle Market Update

Lifestyle property sales escalated in the latter half of 2020, as evidenced by REINZ sale results from the three months to October 2020, where property sales were up more than 70 percent year-on-year.

More currently, REINZ recorded 1,946 lifestyle property sales in the three months ended March 2021, up 8.5 percent on the same period in 2020, and slightly down on the three months to February 2021.

The national median price of all lifestyle blocks sold in the three months to March 2021 was $850,000 – up 19.7 percent on the same period for 2020.

Across the country, there has been a definite increase in interest for the lifestyle property market from Kiwis in the wake of COVID-19.

With employment figures healthy, interest rates remaining low and days-on-market reducing, indications suggest that the sector could remain buoyant in the months ahead.

The global pandemic and ensuing periods of lockdown, gave Kiwis the chance to reflect on their current living situation and prompted a pursuit of lifestyle property where space, clean air and a more expansive way of life could be explored.

With a shortage of existing stock, vacant lifestyle land remains appealing for many buyers. Those properties held in a number of titles or with the ability to be subdivided, have found good traction in the market.

With many businesses moving to a hybrid operating model where work-from-home options are encouraged, and with technological advancements allowing for more flexibility, Kiwis are tending to question whether they need to prioritise proximity to built-up urban areas when looking for a property to buy. The appeal of more land is often winning out.

New Zealanders have an intrinsic connection to rural land and, in the quest to recapture more traditional values and a more fulfilling lifestyle, rural properties are finding new audiences.

While ultra-low interest rates, supply and demand issues and the social desire to upsize their home and land has impacted the recent performance of the lifestyle market, progress on infrastructure projects and the development of satellite nodes is also broadening the property parameters.

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