Blog
Mortgagee sales drop to a four-year low
Filed under: Blog, News, Terralink Mortgagee Sales Report, Uncategorised Responses: 0 Comments
Mortgagee sales have dropped to their lowest level in four years
Figures from location intelligence company Terralink International show there were 461 mortgagee sales in the quarter from October to December 2012. This is 11% less than recorded in the previous quarter and 24% less than the same quarter in 2011.
The total number of forced sales in 2012 was 2,106, the lowest since 2008 and 30% less than the 3,024 recorded in 2009 at the height of the recession.
Terralink Managing Director Mike Donald says the latest figures confirm a sustained downward trend that began in mid 2012.
“Volumes are continuing to fall nationally, and we’re also seeing an end to the volatility which has characterised the last four years.
“This is encouraging news for property owners after such a long period of difficulty and pressure,” Mr Donald says.
Auckland property owners receiving the greatest relief
At a regional level, however, the outlook is more mixed. Terralink’s figures show that while the number of forced sales in Auckland decreased by 26% quarter on quarter, other parts of the country experienced increases.
Marlborough, Taranaki, Waikato, Canterbury, Nelson and Bay of Plenty all experienced quarter on quarter increases.
Mr Donald says a split is emerging between Auckland and the rest of country, with towns and cities outside our main economic hub making up a greater percentage of forced sales.
In 2007, 41.5% of mortgagee sales were in Auckland. That has been steadily declining year on year, and in the last quarter just 21.9 % of mortgagee sales were in Auckland.
By comparison, the percentage of forced sales in the rest of the country has increased from 58.5% in 2007 to 78.1% in the last quarter.
“The supply and demand situation in Auckland means any financially distressed home owners there have a much better chance of selling their home quickly, and at a good price. Consequently, they are much less likely to face a forced sale by the lender,” Mr Donald says.
The figures also show the proportion of ‘Mum and Dad’ property owners (described as individual property owners with only one property) facing mortgagee sales has declined in 2012. ‘Mum and Dad’ property owners accounted for just 15% of all mortgagee sales in the last quarter.
The group under increasing pressure of forced sales in 2012 was individual property owners with between 2-5 properties. In the fourth quarter of 2012, this group comprised 31% of all mortgagee sales, a 6% increase on the previous quarter, making it the single largest group affected.
This trend suggests that a proportion of smaller investors, outside of Auckland, are still under pressure.
The number of sales forced by the larger ‘first tier’ group of major banks increased from 48.5% in 2011, to 52.1% in 2012.
Terralink derives its data from the registration of actual foreclosures.
Improvements to Zoodle
Filed under: Blog, News, Site Announcements Responses: 4 Comments
When you use Zoodle today you will notice that we have made several changes to enhance the Zoodle experience.
We have upgraded our maps and aerial imagery and now use Terralink’s Web Mapping Services. The chief benefits to you as a user are greater accuracy and a fresher more modern look and feel.
When you order a report on Zoodle, you will now also receive this as an email attachment. You will still be able to view the report online. But, to ensure Zoodle is providing the most up-to-date information all reports and legal documents will only be available online for 7 days from date of purchase.
Do make sure that your email address/Zoodle username is up-to-date and is your current email address. That way you can save your emailed reports wherever you like.
All these changes and improvements are reflected in the updated Terms and Conditions.
Mortgagee sales trending down nationally in third quarter 2012
Filed under: Blog, News, Property Statistics, Terralink Mortgagee Sales Report Responses: 0 Comments
Mortgagee sales are showing a significant downward trend for the first time since the global financial crisis began in 2007.
Figures from location intelligence company Terralink International show there were 516 mortgagee sales from July to September 2012, 15% less than recorded for the previous quarter (April to June 2012).
The total number of forced sales in the nine months to September 2012 was 1,645, with a clear and continued downward trend from May 2012.
Terralink International Managing Director Mike Donald says the latest figures are welcome news and finally show a trend back toward pre 2007 levels.
The number of mortgagee sales still remains stubbornly high in comparison with pre-recession figures. However, we are seeing an easing of volumes nationally with only a handful of regions experiencing any significant increases in the third quarter of 2012.
Manawatu and East Cape stand out as the regions with the largest increases in mortgagee sales when comparing third quarter figures with the previous quarter. Mortgagee sales in the Manawatu increased by 28% and the East Cape region jumped by 137%.
By contrast Taranaki (-38%), Wellington (-25%), Otago (-28%) and the Bay of Plenty (-55%) all experienced marked drops quarter on quarter.
The proportion of “Mum and Dad” property owners (described as individual property owners with only one property) facing mortgagee sales has also dropped slightly from 22% in the second quarter of 2012 to 20% in the third quarter.
The figures also show a continued decrease in the number of sales forced by smaller ‘tier two’ lenders such as finance companies.
At the start of the financial crisis it was this category of lenders forcing a greater percentage of mortgagee sales, but this trend has reversed sharply as we head through the recession and into recovery,” says Mr Donald.
However, for the majority of New Zealand property owners, the latest mortgagee sales data suggests that pressure is finally easing, which is welcome news as we go into the holiday season.
Terralink derives its data from the registration of actual foreclosures.
Tags: Bay of Plenty, East Cape, forced sales, lender, Manawatu, mortgagee, Otago, Taranaki, tier two, wellington
Mortgagee Sales Rise in Second Quarter 2012
Filed under: Blog, News, Property Statistics, Terralink Mortgagee Sales Report Responses: 0 Comments
Figures from location intelligence firm Terralink International show there were 605 mortgagee sales from April to June 2012, 81 more than recorded for the first three months of the year.
The total number of forced sales in the six months to June 2012 was 1,129, up from 1,007 for the same period in 2011.
Terralink Managing Director Mike Donald says the latest numbers are consistent with the upward trend that began late in 2011.
“For most of 2011 it looked like the era of record high numbers of forced sales was finally on its way out. Unfortunately, since October 2011 we’ve experienced the opposite.
“When you break it down, 605 mortgagee sales in three months is over 50 every week, or more than seven every single day,” Mr Donald says.
Several regions stand out in the figures for their marked increase in forced sales compared to the first quarter of 2012.
Wellington jumped 56%, while Northland and Bay of Plenty recorded increases of 35% in forced sales. Canterbury came fourth with an increase of 30%.
“Forced sales in all of these regions are up not only from the first quarter of 2012, but also up compared to the second quarter of 2011,” says Mr Donald.
By contrast, property owners in Waikato, Otago, West Coast and Southland experienced a moderate reprieve, with the number of forced sales in those regions decreasing slightly. Auckland remained almost unchanged from the last quarter.
The number of property owners with only one property facing mortgagee sales increased slightly from 21% in the first quarter of 2012, to 22% in the second quarter.
“There’s no good news here for so called ‘mum and dad’ property owners. With properties that are likely to be family homes making up almost a quarter of sales, there’s no sign of economic recovery for ordinary New Zealanders,” Mr Donald says.
Corporates owning more than 11 properties experienced the highest increase in groups facing forced sales, jumping from 16% in the first quarter of 2012 to 25% in the second quarter.
The figures also show an increase in the percentage of forced sales involving tier one lenders, up from 48.5% in 2011 to 52.1% in 2012 June year to date.
“Tier one lenders are our major lending institutions, namely the five big banks. We’re seeing more of these institutions force property sales against individuals, families and corporates.
“Economic growth continues to be sluggish at best, and some commentators are even suggesting the economy may have contracted in the second quarter of 2012. As these conditions continue, I think we’ll see the number of mortgagee sales continue to climb,” Mr Donald says.
Terralink derives its data from the registration of actual foreclosures.
Terralink takes full ownership of Zoodle
Filed under: Blog, News, Site Announcements Responses: 0 Comments
Location intelligence firm Terralink International Limited has taken 100% ownership of Zoodle Limited, providers of New Zealand’s most popular consumer property information website www.zoodle.co.nz.
Launched in 2009 as a joint venture between Terralink and Realestate.co.nz, Zoodle was the first website of its kind to offer consumers a one-stop-shop for detailed information about properties and the communities surrounding them.
Both Realestate.co.nz Limited and its CEO Alistair Helm have now sold their shareholdings to Terralink International Limited.
Terralink Managing Director Mike Donald says Kiwis’ love affair with property and their growing demand for online information have helped drive Zoodle’s success.
“Kiwis are keen to know about everything that affects property values, and they are increasingly keen to do their own research online to arm themselves with information. Zoodle provides these insights, simply and quickly,” says Mr Donald.
The Zoodle website now averages more than 150,000 visitors a month, and numbers are growing.
“With record low interest rates and growing numbers of homebuyers entering the market, it’s more important than ever for people to have the most accurate information available when making decisions involving property.”
With Zoodle now wholly owned by Terralink, Mr Donald says the company’s wealth of property data and expertise can be fully leveraged to make Zoodle an even sharper tool for consumers.
“Zoodle will continue to enjoy a successful and active partnership with Realestate.co.nz Limited. Terralink will also reinvest significantly in content and enhance the platform to ensure that Zoodle remains New Zealand’s number one consumer-oriented, web based, property information service.
“With the most up to date and accurate data on New Zealand’s 2 million plus properties, Terralink is well placed to make Zoodle every Kiwi’s first stop for property information,” Mr Donald says.
Price changes for Zoodle reports
Filed under: Blog, Site Announcements Responses: 3 Comments
We are today (16th January 2012) introducing price increases to our Zoodle reports. These increases are the first for 2 years and reflect increases in the royalty we pay for the core data provided in the reports.
Whilst we would wish to keep cost increases to a minimum, we do need to pass on these costs, as well as reflecting the costs of the operation of the Zoodle website.
We have been delighted by the growing appeal and support of the service over the 3 years that the website has been operating. In that time we have served up over 65,000 reports to homeowners and investors providing valuable insight to assist in the homebuying process. Every week we see over 40,000 people use the website to verify information and be better informed as to the situation regarding the specific property they are interested in – a year ago that number was just 25,000 indicating how the appeal of the site keeps growing.
Zoodle is now the most visited website in NZ for property information witnessing more than twice as much audience than the nearest competitor.
These increases in prices have given us a chance to adopt a new approach to pricing. Whilst the conventional wisdom is to price reports with a price point just below a full dollar amount ($24.95, or $4.95, or $9.99) we have decided to streamline our prices and charge a simple round number – easy to see and easy to understand.
You tell us. Thanks
Alistair Helm
Managing Director – Zoodle
The new pries are as follows:
Comprehensive Report $75
Home Valuer Report $55
Local Sales Report $25
Ratable Valuation Report $4
Previous Sales Report $4
Recent Sales Report $16
Title Details Report $8
Certificate of Title (with diagram) $15
Tags: prices
Homestar Self Assessments
Filed under: Blog, Homestar Responses: 4 Comments
In my previous post I outlined what the Homestar home assessment was and how to get started. The first step is doing an assessment on your home using the self assessment tool on their website. The tool was pretty easy and walks you through each step asking a series of questions. The questionnaire is broken down into several steps:
Home Details
Some pretty basic facts about the house (size, number of bedrooms, etc.) It also asks you the type of house you have and shows photos of the different types. As we live in a villa this was pretty straight forward.
Energy
This section covers what type of heating you have, hot water, lighting and also if you generate any of your own electricity.
Health and Comfort
Windows, ceilings, walls and floors. This section basically goes over how well insulated your home is aling with how well things like sunlight affect the house. The one issue we had with this questions is that it doesn’t really show a roof type where there is a bedroom in the ceiling as we have. A quick check with my wife the architect and we came to the conclusion that a Skillion roof was the closest match. This is probably one thing they need to add to the questionnaire. There were also some interesting questions on downlights as in the conclusions this made me aware of some issues with these types of light which are so prevalent in NZ.
Water
Some pretty straight forward questions your appliances and if you use any of your grey water. An area which I think will have an important role to play in the future.
Waste and Home Management
These 2 sections start to cover some less major physical aspects of the house and more around some of the lifestyle choices. Questions about compost bins, recycling and home security. All easy questions to answer but great prompts for things that you can easily do to change your habits. We personally have that already so did quite well in this section.
Site
The final questions are about outside and where the site is located. You can’t do too much about some things like how close you are to public transport but there are a few things around planting that are good to think about.
So how did we do at the end of it? I’m pleased to report that we got a 4 although I expect that if we had the official measurements done it would come out slightly lower as the house is cold in winter. The results also come with a handy summary of things that you can do to increase the score and comfort of your home. One eye-opener was that recessed lighting can be really bad for the efficiency of your house. Basically since there is no insulation over the top of them and they are hot, air gets sucked up through them and out into the roof. It is definitely something that we will be looking at during the renovation.
There were also a lot of other recommendations but I will leave some of the decisions we made to another post. We’ve just had a Homestar Practitioner around and he did a more thorough look through the house and pointed out some areas where we may be able to improve things.
I attended a presentation today about the Homestar home assessments. Homestar is a relatively new initiative that “helps you improve the performance of your home – making it better. Better to live in, better for the planet and better value in the market.” Realestate.co.nz is working with Homestar to help launch this to real estate professionals in New Zealand and to give it more visibility in the market. As we are about to do some renoovations at home I’m hoping to go through the process of getting an audit done before we do the work and then an assessment afterwards. I will keep you all posted on the progress of the work but in the meantime here are my notes from the presentation today.
The Origins of Homestar
There are approximately 1 million homes in New Zealand that are under performing. New Zealand is known for cold damp homes and it is something that needs to change. Poorly performing buildings cost more to run, are uncomfortable and can lead to increased spending in areas such as healthcare. Kiwis also spend around 3-5K on home performance measures and we need to make sure that this money is being spent wisely.
From this need Homestar was born to develop a common language that we could use to assess home performance in New Zealand. Homestar is a Joint Venture partnership between BRANZ and the New Zealand Green Building Council and is backed by various partners including EECA and the Department of Building and Housing.
What is Homestar?
Homestar is a voluntary environmental rating tool which helps you measure your homes environment against a set of well defined standards. It currently only measures stand alone homes (not apartments). They have taken the best from overseas and also local tools to develop an easy to understand measurement framework.
The assessment measures your house on a scale of 1-10 although it is important to note that in New Zealand most homes are rated a 3-4. The medium term goal is to get most New Zealand homes up to a 4-5 (4 is about where a house built to New Zealand building code sits). As you get higher up the scale the points get hard to achieve. For example solar panels to generate electricity and other innovations that tend to be more niche at the moment.
The measurement covers various aspects of your house with energy being one of the most important measures. There are other measurements as well including moisture control (e.g. extractor fans tied to switch in bathrooms) and water efficiency e.g. restricter valves on taps).
So How Do I Get It?
Simple. Just go to Homestar.org.nz and sign up to do your own assessment. From there you can get extra services if you need a little help or want to get professional advice before you start. The site helps you find someone qualified who services your region.
Yep. It really is that easy. The questionnaire is pretty straight forward and only takes about 20 minutes.
What Next?
Let me know in the comments if you have gone through the questionnaire. I will post updates as I go through the process myself.
Tags: homestar
Auctions – What to expect as a buyer
Filed under: Blog Responses: 0 Comments
With a lot of properties going to auctions these days the Realestate.co.nz team put together a great video with some tips on getting the most out of the auction process. Check out the video and follow these steps to follow, to ensure you are 100% prepared for auction day as a buyer. Here are a few guidelines to follow:
- Do your homework: start attending auctions as an observer – this will give you a better understanding of the auction process.
- Ask questions: if you’re unsure of how the auction process works, ask your real estate agent for advice.
- Make sure all the t’s are crossed: have your solicitor examine the Contract of Sale prior to the auction to ensure everything is in order. Also have any building and/or pest inspections carried out prior to auction day.
- Get your finances in order: you should know exactly how much you can spend on auction day – and, most importantly, you need to stick to your limit on the day. If you’re the successful bidder, you will be required to pay a deposit on the spot, usually 10% of the purchase price – so make sure you have the funds available.
- Register to bid: if you register with the company prior to auction day, the agent will be able to keep you informed of progress during the marketing phase leading up to the day.
- Come prepared: on auction day arrive at the auction venue early, with cheque book in hand. Position yourself so you are close to the auctioneer, but have a clear view of other bidders also. When you are ready to bid, do so with confidence. However, if you don’t feel confident about bidding, you can hire a buyers’ agent to do the job for you. Ask your real estate agent for advice in this regard.
- Going once, going twice…: if yours is the successful final bid, congratulations! You will then be required to sign a contract and pay your deposit immediately. The balance of the purchase price will be paid on settlement.
And remember, if you don’t get the house at auction there is always something else on the market that will suit your needs.
View of the Red Zone of Christchurch CBD
Filed under: Blog, Technology Responses: 1 Comment
Terralink International are NZ’s leading provider of geo-data and mapping technologies. There capability extends to providing a street cam video service. This service maybe seen as a complement to the well appreciated, understood and much used Google Street View.
One of the benefits though of Terralink doing this as a NZ company, has been their ability to be able to provide this service on the ground in the heart of Christchurch. The CBD of the beautiful garden city has been cordoned off since the horrific earthquake of February 22nd. Terralink has been allowed to enter the Red Zone and provide images of all the streets in a detailed 360 degree view as seen from this snapshot below which shows the area of Cathedral Square.
The online site of eqstreetcam provides an interactive visual which is easy to navigate with motion video as well as single image capability – well worth a look.
As a point of disclosure Terralink International is a 45% shareholder in Zoodle.
Tags: Christchurch, earthquake, streetcam, terralink
-
Subscribe to zoodle