The prospects for Hamilton continue to impress, though what’s bubbling away in the background tends to get largely overlooked (from a national media standpoint).
Sustained commercial activity is adding valuable floor space to the city, which only serves to further increase Hamilton’s industrial output. This in-turn creates genuine employment and career opportunity, which has the effect of attracting both unskilled and skilled labour (people and their families) to the city.
As the city’s rental housing stock further plummets (to a point where availability is nearing critical levels), it is almost inevitable that rents will rise. This adds to the incentive for investors to enter the market. From the renters’ perspective, the rising rents will give impetus (among those who have saved a deposit) to buy rather than to continue to rent.
The graph illustrates Hamilton’s median sale price, compared the median sale price across the rest of New Zealand. Generally the two lines tend to track each other. However, you’ll notice the period in which Hamilton’s median has lagged behind the rest of the country. After one such period, the Hamilton median price underwent a rapid rise to meet the NZ median. Given the wide gap between the two currently, we anticipate another convergence of the lines may not be too far away.
