The expressway land grab and what it means for 2019

2019 has arrived and we are very surprised at how fast things are moving up the coast. 

Of course, we knew the expressway would mean higher demand for commercial property this year. But we never through it’d start like this. 

If you had asked us on what we expected for January, towards the end of last year we would have expected a gradual increase in demand as companies came back from their summer holidays.

However what happened in actuality was very encouraging, and this is a great sign for the Kapiti region and it’s general growth. 

So it’s really been a big surge in demand, and that’s caused our predictions for 2019 to be much more bullish.

Strong growth in the January month in any industry indicates that the market is maturing. It implies that over the holiday break large number of people people have decided to take action as the new year begins.

So now we have early indications, what might the year look like?

Firstly we expect to see a transition phase for the first three quarters. Now that a lot of property has been secured in the recent months, there’ll likely be an initial ‘move in’ period. This usually means a bit of time before it feels like the new growth has ‘happened’.

Then we predict once businesses are set up and established, a new wave of land and business prices will follow. Of course, with these new businesses and people in the area, there will be new services and opportunities to meet the new demand (new cafes, retail opportunities etc.). But we expect this to happen in the fourth quarter when the growth has really ‘set in’.

Anyway, it’s been a great start to the year, and it’s still too early to know for sure what will happen. If you’ve got any insights you’d like to add we’d love to hear it.

But for now stay tuned for 2019!