Estate agents in New Zealand are predicting another successful year for the buy-to-let and commercial property markets.
Bayleys surveyed a range of economists, property analysts, business leaders and politicians and, while the results suggested that growth will become slower in the commercial property market, they also found that there was a ‘long tail yet’.
Wellington’s commercial property market seemed to have benefitted from the earthquakes which took place in November 2016, as they resulted in reduced stock and improved vacancy levels.
Meanwhile the forecast from agency Crockers focused more on residential landlords. The survey, which was commissioned from forecaster Infometrics, predicted that net immigration will continue to rise to a record 72,000 by the middle of the year, before easing during the middle of 2018 to around 64,000 people.
Infometrics believes that the higher numbers will have a positive effect on the property market over the next 12 months. The firm is also predicting that interest rates will climb higher throughout 2017 with one- and two-year fixed rates climbing to 5.2% by early 2018.
Growth in the nation’s largest city of Auckland had slowed 3.3% – 0.7% below the national average. However some suburbs on the outskirts of the city, including Rodney and Franklin, were experiencing rent inflation of up to 10%.
