The greater Ponsonby real estate market has now had time following on from the move to Alert Level 2 in May to adjust to a different way of working.
Many businesses developed innovative ways to navigate the Level 3 guidelines (Fine dining delivered anyone?) and it is heartening to see the community doing everything they can to support local business as soon as possible. On a lighter note, my new Annah Stretton facemasks helped me be both fashionable and safe, while my entranceway “Welcome-Station” enabled clients to easily sanitise and don protective equipment before entering my homes for private viewings.
May was probably one of the busiest periods in my career to date, with an incredible amount of work required to organise upcoming listings for market, in particular arranging trades-people to complete post lockdown house preparation for my clients. It’s great to be able to help small businesses with upcoming work. It has always been a personal priority of mine to focus my spending on local small business as much as possible. One of the reasons I love the Ponsonby area is that “Shopping Local” is the general rule and there has always been strong support of the neighbourhood businesses.
Talking with clients about their post-lockdown real estate strategies, understandably, a strong recurring theme has been ‘should I sell now, wait till spring or even beyond?’ While no one can tell the future, we certainly know more about ‘selling today’ than we know about ‘spring and beyond’ which is a truism that tends to hold in any market. This question ultimately depends on your personal circumstances, for example you may require a larger home and are comfortable buying and selling within the same market.
What we do know about selling now is that there are indications that there may be more competition in spring, when many households mortgage-deferral period will end, potentially requiring additional sellers onto the market. We know that active home buyers are currently very much engaged in the market, and we are still fielding plenty of enquiry. For example one of my Auctions in May had five unconditional buyers in the room, spirited bidding and sold under the hammer for an exceptional price. (HELENE RAVLICH)
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