Make Smarter Property Decisions

Continued growth in property values across New Zealand netted sellers $3.1b in profit during the first three months of 2018, according to new figures from CoreLogic. 

The company’s first Pain and Gain report for the year shows total losses from resales dropping from $36.6 million to just $27.2 million, showing few people are concerned enough about the market outlook to push through quick sales for a lower price. 

Aucklanders continued to get the lion’s share of median profits per resale at $352,000, followed by Tauranga ($236,500), Wellington ($227,400) and Hamilton ($195,000). 

One sign of market fatigue was in apartments, for which the proportion of loss making resales 

increased from 8.7% to 11.2%. This is the highest figure in two years, with sellers making a median loss of $33,000. 

CoreLogic Senior Research Analyst Kelvin Davidson says the market is generally in good shape, with losses from sales remaining at historically low levels. 

“There's a bit of evidence of uncertainty for investors and in the apartment sector, but it's minimal. This is consistent with the continued gains in overall property prices in most parts of the country." 

Across the main centres, Wellington and Dunedin continued to stand out as the strongest markets overall. In the capital, low levels of listings and strong upward pressure on prices meant just 1.2% of sales were made at a loss, while in Dunedin the number was even lower at 1%. 

By contrast, Auckland saw an increase in the proportion of loss making resales, up from 3.3% to 3.7%. Hamilton and Tauranga also experienced slight increases, while Christchurch city had the highest proportion at 9.9%, up from 8.8% in the last three months of 2017. 

Owner occupiers fared better than investors during the first quarter of the year, with just 2.6% of their sales being made at a loss, down from 3.2% in the last three months of 2017. Investors faced more pain, with 5.1% of their sales generating a loss, up from 4.7%. 

"We’d anticipate property values continuing to rise modestly over the rest of the year, given that migration is holding up, investors are staying in the market, and interest rate rises remain a fair way away.”, Mr Davidson says.

You can read CoreLogic’s full report here.

Kid’s canopies have been on the must-have kid’s design lists for a few years now, whether hung above the bed or used with cushions on the floor for a permanent tent/reading corner. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to my no sew, 20 minute bed canopy, created with a queen-sized duvet cover set. It's been hanging up for 6 months now and is still going strong and very much loved by its bookworm owner who elected to hang LED lanterns up for "extra special magic mum". Here's how we did it: 

• Queen duvet set (you need one of the pillows in the set too). 
• Round garment holder (the ones used to dry socks/small garments…this is what creates the tent shape at the top of the canopy & enables the tent ‘ceiling’ to be styled).
• Scissors. 
• 2 x pieces of ribbon. 
• Ceiling hook.

1. Open all the domes on the duvet cover (this is the short side of the duvet). 
2. Gather one of the LONG sides of the duvet into a concertina fold (think back to when you made fans at kindy). 
3. Tie the base of 'fan' with a hair tie
4. Lay the duvet out on the ground, fan tie at the top. The two ‘shorter’ sides with the domes/buttons act as the front opening of the canopy
5. Cut up the other LONG side of duvet (it's at the bottom), right up the seam to the corner.  
6. Now go to the concertina fold at the top of the canopy. Cut a small slit in the bottom of one the concertina folds, towards the middle of the fan. 
7. Wiggle up the hook of the garment-holder up through the slit that you've just cut. 
8. Drill a small hole in the ceiling. 
9. Screw a ceiling hook into the hole. 
10. Loop a ribbon over the ceiling hook. Pick up the canopy using the hook of the garment holder (that you've just poked up through the canopy). 
11. Tie the ceiling ribbon to the hook (so the canopy is now hanging from ceiling). 

1. To hide the hair-tie, wrap your second length of ribbon around it and tie into a bow. 
2. Get one of the pillows from the duvet set and tuck it up under the peg holder thing to form the underside "roof" of the tent and to hide the peg thing, clip onto the pegs. 
3. Add LED lanterns to the clips too if you like.  
4. Fluff out the canopy and adjust it so it's hanging at an even level from ceiling.