If you're unsure of what to expect in terms of New Zealand's housing market in 2019, property expert Ashley Church is tipping more of the same for Kiwis looking to get on the property ladder.
Appearing on TVNZ1's Breakfast today, Church says that prices will remain reasonably flat across the country, although it won't be out of the question for a few outliers, namely in our biggest city - Auckland.
"Auckland's been flat for the last year or so," Church began. "There's been a bit of activity in other markets around the country."
"The expectation would be that other markets will start to decline and flatten off this year to be more like Auckland, but no crash. Prices will stay flat for the next three or four years."
Yet while the majority of the property market will stay as is, Church also predicts a sharp decline in a few areas across the country, again with sharp focus on Auckland.
"What we've had over the last 12 months is that Auckland's been flat, and when we talk about being flat, what we mean is that the average median price across the country is going to be flat - which means that it's going to move one or two per cent either way.
"What will happen over the next 12 months, I think, is that we'll see some markets around the country - including Auckland - there'll be much more dramatic drops in prices, and that could be in the order of 15-20 per cent.
"They'll tend to be in areas where there's been either high speculation or in areas where there's been strong investor activity.
"The expectation for me would be that those will be in lower socio-economic areas around the country where there's been strong investor activity, and a lot of speculation. There'll be some variations to that, look for some big drops, against the background across the country of flat median prices."
However, while it might be slightly rosier for those looking to own properties of their own, renters again will be hit hard in the pockets, Mr Church strongly predicts.
"Another year - unfortunately - of bigger than average (rent) increases."
"Last year we had around about a $30 per week increase, that was against the background of about $12 per week on average the previous 10 years.
"You'll have, I think, another year where we're up around that $25-30 per week mark unfortunately."
Lastly, Mr Church light-heartedly refused to predict what we'll see with interest rates, having missed the mark completely at the beginning of 2018.
"I came out and made a prediction last year that was wrong - which was that they were going to go up - and so did every other commentator.
"My advice on that? Throw a dice."
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