Fallout from the recession caused a huge boost in 2009 house-hunters searching for mortgagee sales as opportunistic Kiwis looked to take advantage and find a bargain. The keyword ‘mortgagee’ was searched for over 40,000 times in the past 12 months, equating to one in every 13 searches.
This trend comes via Realestate.co.nz, the country’s most comprehensive property listing website, which has also seen a massive increase in searches for beach destinations with the country perhaps seeking a sanctuary from the doom and gloom of the recession.
As Realestate.co.nz CEO Alistair Helm says, “paralleling the theme of recessionary searches, the top 10 business related searches almost all have a focus on making money. Top search was “investment” with “do up” and “home and income” rounding out the top 10.”
Contrasting the emphasis on recession-related searches, within the top ten were also lifestyle aspiration terms, with punters seeking pools, waterfront living, character properties, villas and garages. As Helm points out:
“2009 was the year of the opportunist; people looked for added value in properties with keywords like ‘beach’, ‘waterfront’ and ‘swimming pool’, showing there was continued interest in coastal properties.”
Analysis of the top location searches shows that Queenstown was top of the table by some distance. In addition, the picturesque and aspirational beach suburb of Sumner made a dynamic and somewhat surprising rise up the chart, from 354 last year to 45 this year. The top ten also included Wanaka, Raglan and Mapua. Helm continues:
“While the property market certainly faced some tough times in 2009, the word ‘investment’ was in fact the most searched for business opportunity phrase, moving up to an overall search ranking of 40, from 297 last year. This indicates that there was a feeling that this year represented a great opportunity to make money if you had available capital.”
Please note: A comprehensive list of all the 2009 trend data is available at http://unconditional.co.nz/blog/
Press Release: Realestate.co.nz AUCKLAND 23 December 2009