How long should your property be on the market for?

Residential


The time that your property will be on the market for is as unique as your home itself. We’ve seen average sale times range from a month and a half (Hawkes Bay), right through to nearly half a year (West Coast). But we’ve also seen West Coast properties sell in under a week, and Hawkes Bay properties take many months to find a buyer.


That being said, regional residential homes have become hot property over the last couple of years. High demand is reducing sale times across the board, as you can see from the below data:


Region                                 2012-2016 average sale time (days) 2017 average sale time (days)
Waikato                               150                                                      61
Hawkes Bay                          86                                                       53
Manawatu-Whanganui       116                                                      48
Wairarapa                            121                                                      47
West Coast                           274                                                    116
Canterbury                           107                                                      84
North Otago                        143                                                      46


People are loving the regions at the moment, but remember: these are just average times, and there are plenty of other factors that will adjust your expected time on the market.

If you want to reduce the length of your home sale without compromising on the price, there are a few things you can do. These are the factors you need to consider:




Contributing factors

These factors are split into those you can control and those you can’t. You can work around the latter and get the right advice from your agent in regards to the former.



You can control


Price

The more you want to get for your home (i.e. the higher above RV), the more patient you’ll need to be. You sometimes hear stories of people who received tens of thousands of dollars more than they expected in just a few days: but these examples are few and far between. Normally, you need to wait for the right buyer and the right level of marketing hype to build to achieve the sales price your property deserves.

Renovation work required

The amount of renovation work that needs to be done to your home can, unexpectedly, either reduce or increase the amount of time your property spends on the market. If your market is full of people who are looking for a ‘project home’ i.e. one in need of refurbishment at a discount, and your property fulfills that criteria, it may be snapped up very quickly.

On the other hand, if your buyers want something they can move into straight away, you may be better off doing some minor renovations yourself to speed up the sale process.

Marketing

At the heart of any good property sale is a good marketing campaign. A poor marketing campaign, or the wrong marketing campaign, can result in a dearth of buyers and a long time on the market. If you work with the right agent with the right local knowledge and expertise, however, and put aside enough to make the most of their talents, your property sale may be a lot faster than you first expected.


You can’t control


Location

Hawkes Bay is a hot market with a low inventory and lots of demand. The West Coast, on the other hand, has a lot less demand. As you would expect, this results in properties in Hawkes Bay selling faster than those on the West Coast. But that doesn’t mean every property on the West Coast will take a long time to sell. If you can control the price, renovation and marketing factors well enough, you can offset the location factor. There are buyers in every market, as long as you sell to the right conditions.

Unique features

Homes with unique features can either be very difficult or very easy to sell. For example, the average person may not be as interested in a home’s wine cellar (or at least not enough to pay more for it), while a wine professional or a vintner may be willing to make an offer to secure this useful, unique feature.

The same applies to less unusual features, such as a six- or seven-bedroom home. These can be ‘too much’ for many buyers, and as such can stretch out your sales time.

Market conditions

If people aren’t buying property, or rather can’t buy property, then you will have a longer sale time. This can be the result of a number of market conditions, such as high interest rates, a lack of financing or macroprudential rules cutting off the mortgage tap. This is possibly the most frustrating uncontrollable factor, as it relies on being ready to sell at the right time—that is, during a busy market peak.



Summary

How long should your property be on the market for? On average, one to two months. But average times only work for average properties, and there are many other factors that will affect your home come sale time. Take control of the price, the renovation work and the marketing, and work around the location, the unique features and the market conditions: this is how you achieve a timely and profitable property sale.

To learn more, download our free ebook available below.

Browse


Topic


Related tips

The full cost of ownership

Read more

Whether it's your first home or an addition to your investment portfolio, the thrill of acquiring a new asset can quickly be dampened by unexpected costs.
Read More
The art of choosing wisely

Read more

Are you on the brink of renegotiating your mortgage interest rate? The question on everyone's mind is, "What rate is right?"
Read More
The do's and don'ts of feature walls

Read more

Starting off with a blank canvas can be exciting, but knowing how to fill the canvas is crucial
Read More
Buying by tender or deadline sale

Read more

Tender is a form of marketing and selling a property through intensive advertising media designed to capture the maximum attention of customers within a set time frame.
Read More

Find us

Find a Salesperson

From the top of the North through to the deep South, our salespeople are renowned for providing exceptional service because our clients deserve nothing less.

Find a Property Manager

Managing thousands of rental properties throughout provincial New Zealand, our award-winning team saves you time and money, so you can make the most of yours.

Find a branch

With a team of over 850 strong in more than 88 locations throughout provincial New Zealand, a friendly Property Brokers branch is likely to never be too far from where you are.