Heading for the hills

The mountain magic of Queenstown is one of those places people go to on holiday and never want to leave.

It has made the Central Otago town one of the country’s property hot spots for many years, and not just for New Zealanders.

But it may be a good time for local buyers to start looking there again. Following a property expo in Auckland last week, real estate agent Cathy Campbell from Queenstown’s Belle Property says the high exchange rate means some overseas investors are staying away.

"It seems to be a normal market now. Over the past few years it got very heated, but buyers are no longer in such a rush to purchase," Campbell says.

The figures dug out by independent resource queenstownproperty.com would seem to bear that out.

During the past six months there were 461 residential sales in the Queenstown area, compared with 528 for the same period last year.

While the time it took to sell a house remained about the same, bare lots took longer to move.

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