April Lifestyle Data: REINZ Reveals a Steady Growth in Lifestyle Property Sales

29 May 2024

Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) has just released the data for April 2024, revealing a significant increase in lifestyle sales. These figures show an increase of 149 more lifestyle property sales (11.9%) for the three months ended April 2024 than for the three months ended March 2024. Overall, there were 1,404 lifestyle property sales in the three months ended April 2024, compared to 1,289 lifestyle property sales for the three months ended April 2023 (+8.9%) and 1,255 lifestyle property sales for the three months ended March 2024.

5,519 lifestyle properties were sold in the year to April 2024, 362 (-6.2%) less than were sold in the year to April 2023. The value of lifestyle properties sold was $6.12 billion for the year to April 2024.

The median price for all lifestyle properties sold in the three months to April 2024 was $988,650 and was $13,650 higher compared to the three months ended April 2023 (+1.4%). The median price for Bare Land Lifestyle properties sold in the three months to April 2024 was $425,000 and was $30,000 higher compared to the three months that ended April 2023 (+7.6%). The median price for Farmlet Lifestyle properties sold in the three months to April 2024 was $1,107,500 and was $10,000 less compared to the three months ended April 2023 (-0.9%).

Shane O'Brien, Rural Spokesman at REINZ, provided insights on the regional dynamics, stating, “Following a significant slowdown in sales earlier this year, there was a lift in lifestyle sales, with thirteen regions noting an upturn. The increased flexibility from employers, enabling work-from-home arrangements, appeals to buyers seeking a country lifestyle without being too distant from urban centres. Many salespeople continue to receive a growing number of inquiries from these buyers.”

Nine regions recorded an increase in sales compared to April 2023, with Auckland (+41 sales) and Wellington (+31 sales) observing the biggest increases. Manawatu-Whanganui ( -23 sales) and Waikato ( -14 sales) recorded the biggest decreases in sales in the three months to April 2024 compared to the three months to April 2023. Compared to the three months to March 2024, 10 regions recorded an increase in sales.

Six regions saw the median price of lifestyle blocks increase between the three months ending April 2023 and the three months ending April 2024. The most notable examples were in Manawatu-Whanganui (+16.9%) and Otago (+13.4%) with the biggest decreases being in Southland ( -14.8%) and Wellington ( -12.8%).

The median number of days to sell for lifestyle properties was 14 days more in the three months to April 2024 than in the three months to April 2023, sitting at 80 days. Northland (69 days) recorded the shortest number of days to sell in April 2024. Otago (109 days) recorded the longest number of days to sell.

For media inquiries or further information, please contact [email protected]

Real Estate Institute of New Zealand

For more real estate information and market trends data, visit www.reinz.co.nz. For New Zealand's most comprehensive range of listings for residential, lifestyle, rural, commercial, investment and rental properties, visit www.realestate.co.nz - REINZ's official property directory website.

Notes to Editors:

The information provided by REINZ in relation to the lifestyle real estate market covers the most recently completed three-month period; thus, references to February 2023 refer to the period from 1 December 2022 to 28 February 2023.

From April 2021 there has been a change in the methodology for calculating rural statistics. To date, the rural statistics have referred to a Return Period which is the month in which a sale record was submitted to REINZ. Going forward, the rural statistics will refer to an Unconditional Month i.e., the month in which the sale went unconditional. This change in methodology ensures that sales that took place in April, for instance, are recorded against April even if they were submitted to REINZ late. The change also brings Rural statistics calculation into line with the Residential statistics calculation, where the Unconditional Month approach has been used successfully to calculate Residential Statistics for several years now. The Unconditional Month methodology also ensures that the most up-to-date state of the REINZ database is reported at the time the data is released with revision of prior months statistics often occurring to reflect the submission of late data or sale amendments that took place after the prior statistics release.

In addition to the calculation period change there are two additional changes to the data worth noting:
1. 12 Districts have been replaced by 13 Regions. These are consistent with the parts of the residential press release and it has been done to be consistent with regional definitions outside REINZ e.g., Statistics NZ
2. Dairy Support is a new farm category and we now have the ability to separate Lifestyle Blocks into Bareland and Farmlets.

If you have any questions regarding this change in methodology, please email [email protected].