House prices fall in Central, Qtown Lakes Region
Source: John Edens, The Southland Times, Saturday 13th February 2010

Central Otago and the Queenstown Lakes district were the only areas in the country where house prices fell last month, according to the latest Real Estate Institute of New Zealand report.

A Queenstown-based valuer yesterday said the regional housing market, driven by holiday homes and lifestyle blocks, was more susceptible to a sustained downturn because the boom times were so good.

The REINZ report says the Central Otago/Lakes region suffered a drop in the January median price, falling 10.4 per cent to $410,000.

Hamish Goldfinch, of Moore & Percy property valuers in Queenstown, said the REINZ report was an accurate indication of prices.

During the property boom, at its height in 2007, the resort town's house prices were inflated much more than other regions.

"We've suffered from over-inflation beyond other areas and we've a long way to fall back," he said.

Overseas buyers and out-of-towners buying up lifestyle blocks or apartments had inflated those prices, he said.

When boom went to bust the volatile market had further to fall than other more stable housing sectors, he said.

Banks had tightened their lending requirements, too, making it harder to secure mortgages, which left fewer available buyers in search of holiday homes, Mr Goldfinch said.

Confidence had returned to the housing market generally but Queenstown, Wanaka and Central Otago lagged behind, he said.

Wanaka First National principal Lynette Winsloe said sales of entry-level homes picked up last month.

A new three or four-bedroom house in Albert Town could be yours for $400,000, Ms Winsloe said.

The Wanaka market had improved last yearand lenders accepted a recession-hit housing sector called for flexibility "pricing their products to meet the market," she said.

The median regional price for Central Otago/Lakes – the halfway point for all house sales and roughly equivalent to the average price – was $432,500 in Decem-ber and $457,000 in January last year.

In Queenstown, the median price increased within the township, from $481,000 in December to $531,250 last month, but overall prices fell.

In Central Otago, where 32 houses sold last month, the price fell from $417,000 in December to $347,500 last month.

Twenty-six houses sold in Queenstown last month, down from 42 in December.

The Otago region showed the strongest growth in sales, up 17.9 per cent to an average price of $247,500, while Southlanders completed their January house sales faster than anyone else, on average in 33 days, the report says.

Flights will boost ski season
source:Otago Daily Times, Joanne Carrol, Wednesday 13 January 2010

Increased flights at Queenstown Airport this year will be a major cash boost to the resort's economy, Destination Queenstown marketing manager Graham Budd says.
Air New Zealand announced yesterday it will increase flights between Australia and Queenstown by 20% for the coming ski season, taking the number of international services to the resort to 20 per week.

For the peak July and August periods, Air New Zealand will increase return services from Sydney from five to six per week, and additional weekly services will be added to the current two services from Melbourne and three from Brisbane.

This adds to Qantas' five weekly flights to Sydney and Melbourne and Pacific Blue's two flights to Sydney.

Mr Budd said the announcement gave Queenstown Airport, skifields and tourism operators hope of beating last year's record season.

"It's excellent news.

"Australia is our largest international market and still has huge potential.

"Every flight is another 150 visitors who usually stay seven nights for a proper ski holiday so that's hundreds of visitor nights.

"They will be eating and drinking in town so the compound value is significant," he said.

NZSki sales and marketing manager David Ovendale said the company was "ecstatic".

"Access is the main driver to visitors coming to the area.

"We had a record season in revenue and number of skier days, so we would love to beat that or match it this year," he said.

More seats generally meant greater competition and lower prices, he said.

Queenstown Airport Corporation chief executive Steve Sanderson said the increase was "fantastic".

International visitor numbers had grown almost 30% to record numbers last year.

Domestic visitor numbers had also grown 10%, he said.

Air New Zealand Tasman Pacific manager Glen Sowry said flights from Auckland would also increase 30% in July and August to four direct return services per day.

"The increase in capacity reflects the ever-increasing interest in the Southern Lakes region as a holiday destination.

"It is also proving very popular over summer, with the number of flights from Auckland in January and February up 20% on last year," he said.

The increases amounted to an additional 36,500 seats available in and out of Queenstown.

Air New Zealand direct services across the Tasman were four per week just five years ago.

"Year-on-year growth has placed Queenstown as arguably New Zealand's fastest-growing destination for Australian visitors," Mr Sowry said.

Air New Zealand's aircraft were fitted with advanced navigation technology, which allowed the airline to land in Queenstown in very challenging weather conditions, he said.

"Last ski season, not a single one of Air New Zealand's 140 transtasman flights was diverted or cancelled due to poor weather conditions," he said.

Queenstown's other airline providers, Qantas, Jetstar and Pacific Blue, all said they had no immediate plans to increase flight numbers to the resort, but were always looking for opportunities to expand.

Fire brigade distributing home alarms
Source: Otago Daily Times, James Beech, Friday 18th September 2009

Arrowtown Volunteer Fire Brigade and Harcourts Arrowtown have joined forces to distribute 500 smoke alarms to elderly, disabled and special needs residents in the village.

The new initiative will be part of an open day, on October 4, at the fire station, where the importance of life-saving smoke alarms will be promoted.

A car boot sale will be held, with proceeds paying for alarm batteries for future replacement and the brigade will launch a recruitment drive, calling specifically for day-time volunteers.

The brigade, St John Wakatipu and Queenstown police will operate stalls to raise awareness of their activities.

The Arrowtown Scout Group will provide a sausage sizzle.

"Life tubes", plastic medication containers that attach to a refrigerator door and can be accessed by someone assisting in an emergency, will be available.

The community fete is being organised by qualified Arrowtown firefighters Adin May, Terry Youngman and Jennifer Cavanagh, who is also the Harcourts administrator.

Harcourts bought the Chubb alarms from NZ Safety, in Invercargill, and firefighters will install alarms in qualifying residences.

"There's a minimum of three smoke alarms per home and that's what we're putting in," Mrs Cavanagh said.

Mr May said the aim of the day was to tie in the importance of installing smoke alarms and checking batteries with the switch to daylight saving time the Sunday before.

The day would open the doors of the fire station to the community and answer questions about joining or assisting the brigade, he said.

"There's a lot of old houses, old cribs in Arrowtown made in not fire-resistant material. If one of those places does come alight, which has happened, they go up in flames very quickly."

A colouring competition for Arrowtown school and pre-school children will be judged on the day by representatives of Harcourts and the brigade.

Harcourts’ website record reflects returning confidence
Source: Bryan Thomson, CEO, Harcourts New Zealand, Thu 20 Aug 2009

Last month Harcourts’ New Zealand website attracted its highest ever number of unique visitors, reflecting the returning confidence in New Zealand real estate according to Harcourts New Zealand CEO Bryan Thomson.

According to the latest statistics from Nielsen Online Market Intelligence the www.harcourts.co.nz website received 175,453 unique visitors in July.

This was a record for the Harcourts New Zealand website and also once again confirmed it is most visited real estate brand’s website in the country – an impressive 44% ahead of its nearest rival.

Mr Thomson says the latest website statistics are a good “lead indicator”, given online searching is now said to be the first point of entry into the market for most property buyers.

“For the past few months Harcourts has been reporting a good volume of sales when compared with the previous year and these latest website statistics suggest that those volumes may lift further in spring.”

“They also back up the anecdotal feedback from Harcourts business owners and sales consultants around the country who are reporting that confidence in the real estate market appears to have returned and that this is seeing more buyer enquiry and sales.”

According to the latest statistics released by Nielsen Online, Harcourts is the most visited real estate brand website in the country and ranks third overall behind real estate portals www.trademe.co.nz/property and www.realestate.co.nz (which Harcourts listings are included on).