NZ house prices continue to climb

House prices in New Zealand rose by more than 11 per cent in the year to March 2016 – although there are signs that price growth in Auckland is finally flattening out.

According to the latest data released by NZ valuation service Quotable Value (QV), the average national property price in New Zealand rose by 11.4 per cent between March 2015 and March 2016, taking the average price of a home in the country to NZ$559,492.

This growth has largely been driven by rapidly rising property prices in the country’s largest city, Auckland. Over the same period property prices in the city rose by almost 17 per cent, taking the average price of an Auckland home to NZ$931,061. However, in the first quarter of 2016, prices there declined by 0.2 per cent, although experts say it is too early to determine whether this will be part of a longer trend.

Bearing in mind that Auckland is by far and away the most popular region in New Zealand for newcomers to settle in, if you’re planning on calling the country’s largest city your home in the near future, then you are going to need to do everything you can to make the most of every pound when it comes to changing them into NZ Dollars.

Therefore, getting the best exchange rate possible when it comes to changing your Pounds to Dollars is essential.

When exchanging large lump sums, only small fluctuations in exchange rates can have a huge impact on how much money you’ll end up with.

For example, imagine you managed to sell your property in the UK three months ago and had £150,000 to spend. If you had have decided to wait a few months to see what would happen to the exchange rate, then on Friday (9th April) you would have received NZ$2.061 for every £1 exchanged – making a total of NZ$309,150. However, had you been advised to exchanged immediately then you would have been laughing. On 19th January the exchange rate was £1=NZ$2.245 – or NZ$336,750 on an exchange of £150,000; a not unsubstantial NZ$27,600 more.

Of course, there is no guarantee of choosing the absolute best time to exchange. But taking expert advice from a specialist currency exchange firm like Halo Financial can certainly help.

Foreign exchange companies understand why the exchange rates are moving and just what impact this has on your currency transaction so can give you at least some indication of when the market could move favourably. What’s more, they can also provide you with a range of options on when you should consider exchanging, and how much you should exchange at a time.

To find out how you can make sure you can take advantage of positive fluctuations in the market and exchange your currency at the right time to get the best possible deal on the purchase your overseas property, visit www.halofinancial.com

Article by David Fuller