Archive for July, 2009
May mortgagee sales continue to show stress in the market
Filed under: Blog, Terralink Mortgagee Sales Report Responses: 3 Comments
The latest Terralink report on mortgagee sales show that in May there was a total of 247 registered mortgagee sales. This compares to 251 in April and just 88 a year ago.
A key component of the make up of mortgagee sales as reported by Terralink is the proportion of mortgagee sales that were accounted for by individuals or companies who owned multiple properties. In fact of the 247 mortgagee sales registered in May just 47 properties were classified as “single family homes” – the balance of 200 were properties which were owned as a portfolio of properties by individuals with investment properties or companies which had gone into liquidation or defaulted to an extent that the lender had foreclosed on the properties seeking to salvage the debt.
Judged on the past 15 years the level of mortgagee sales continues to demonstrate that this period of recession has been felt more significantly with close to 1,000 mortgagee sales in the first 5 months of this year – the previous worst start to any year was 2002 when in the January to may period there were 642 regsistered mortgagee sales.
On a regional basis the Auckland region continues to show the highest representation of mortgagee sales – the pair of charts below compares May 2009 with May 2008 and highlights the extent of the polarisation of sales activity to the Auckland region.
Year on year the Auckland region is up over 200% to see 109 mortgagee sales in May, next largest activity is in the Canterbury and Waikato regions with 38 and 27 sales respectively.
Tags: mortgagee
Modernism in New Zealand
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Case Study House #22 – Getty Museum
I’ve had the pleasure of attending several films in this years New Zealand Film Festival including a documentary about Julius Shulman titled “Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman“. The film is a great documentary on one of the best architectural photographers of all time. He is known for his work photographing such influential 20th century architects as Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra and John Lautner.
But what of Modernism in New Zealand? Well you can’t go past the book Long Live the Modern by Julia Gatley which outlines the history of modernism in New Zealand from 104-1984. In New Zealand modernism got its start in the 1920′s and 1930′s with the advent of standardisation and mass production but really didn’t evolve into its own until the post-war period. As well as following international trends of flat roofed boxes we also developed a distinct New Zealand flavour which took hints from our simpler past – Huts, shacks, baches and whare. I’ve listed a few remaining examples of New Zealand modernism below:
Pascoe House – Sumner, Christchurch
Piano House. Paul Pascoe
More information here including more modern Christchurch houses.
Parnell Baths – Parnell, Auckland
Parnell Baths - Photo DOCOMOMO
Dixon Street Flats – Wellington
Dixon Street Flats - NZHistory.net
Brake House – Titirangi, Auckland
Brake House
DOCOMOMO
If you are interested in learning more about modernism in New Zealand and helping preserve the remaining examples of this type of building then I suggest you also check out DOCOMOMO who’s aim is to help preserve this type of architecture worldwide.
Yesterday Google launched real estate search in New Zealand (click on the image below for a link to the search for “bulls”) The search facilities allow you to filter by the standard features such as bedrooms, bathrooms, parking, price and size.
There has been a lot of interest from the media wondering if the end is in sight for specialist real estate sites. The more ways we can get our data out there on the web and searchable the better. One of things that our users have told is that they love that you can get everything in one place. If we couldn’t aggregate the data that is spread across the various sites (Census, LINZ, MOE, etc) then the site wouldn’t have nearly the same richness of content. What we need to do is put our data at the point of use – and if that is through a Google Maps interface then we will be supporting this.
Getting cold? It’s time to insulate
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Photo by anastaz1a
The Government has recently announced a subsidy for home heating and insulation. If you house was built before 2000 the you may be eligible. The funding can be used for:
- Ceiling and underfloor insulation, up to a required standard (please note you need to get both ceiling and underfloor insulation done, if at all possible, to qualify for funding).
- A clean, efficient heating device in the primary living space, if the primary living space does not already have a heating device that meets current standards. You are only eligible for funding for the installation of clean heating if your insulation first meets standards.
- The following energy efficiency measures where necessary: a hot water cylinder wrap, pipe lagging, draught-stopping, and a ground moisture barrier
As winter bites and you sit there shivering in your cold, damp home don’t you think you owe it to yourself to upgrade your insulation? In New Zealand we love to build houses that are totally inadequate for our environment and it is good to see that we are getting serious about fixing them.
SO what are you waiting for? Check out the ENERGYWISE website for more information.
Queenstown 2009 – The Professionals Conference
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Alistair and I had the pleasure of travelling to Queenstown last week for The Professionals conference in Queenstown. I’ve picked up a Flip Ultra HD and made a short video showing off some Queenstown sights.
The Queenstown property market has been in the news a lot of the last few months as several high profile developments have run into financial troubles due to the recession. Still this doesn’t detract from the amazing scenery, adventure sports scene and general buzzing atmosphere of this town.
Queenstown 2009 from Zoodle on Vimeo.
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