Buying and selling: what you need to know for the lockdown

If you have a pending real estate sale or purchase settlement date scheduled within the lockdown period, it's likely things may not go ahead as planned.

According to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, this could impact more than 5,000 buyers and sellers nationwide.

"By looking at the last three years of settled sales between 26 March and 23 April, we can expect that there may be around 5,800 properties due to settle during the New Zealand Alert Level 4 lockdown period," REINZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said.

In some cases, people may not be able to move into houses they have purchased and vendors may not be able to move out, while for others it will not be possible to undertake a pre-settlement inspection.

While the Law Society and REINZ look to find solutions, Harcourts managing director Bryan Thompson said common sense would have to apply, with the option for people to mutually agree to defer final transfers until after the alert level was lowered.

Yesterday, the government announced a mortgage holiday for those affected by coronavirus. At a press conference, finance minister Grant Robertson said major retail banks had agreed to a six-month mortgage holiday for people whose income had been affected by Covid-19. 

The exact criteria had not been finalised, but it would cover both principal and interest payments. Robertson said the Reserve Bank had agreed to help banks implement the scheme.