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Ex-pats desperate to get out of London and first-home buyers determined not to miss out on while money is cheap have inundated real estate agents with calls to inspect homes for sale from April 28.

Under Level 3 restrictions, agents will be able to conduct daily two private viewings per property. For some listed homes, that has meant lengthy queues for appointments as pent-up demand reaches its peak.

Agents have told OneRoof that they are prepared for an extremely busy post-lockdown housing market.

Harcourts Dunedin branch manager Richard Stringer says his agency has 30 buyers lined up for post-lockdown viewings already.

“We have buyers lined up waiting, with pre-registered interest, ready to view as soon as they can, so we’re very confident in Dunedin market,” he says.

Although Stringer expects sales volumes will be down on where they were before lockdown, he says buyers are active and interested.

“Money is cheaper, and lending is easier so that should help first home buyers. There’s good interest in everything from entry-level properties to million-dollar-plus homes,” he says.

Stringer's office has ten homes that are all set to go live this week and another ten that are due to have photos and staging done once the lockdown is lifted.

He says the Government's decision to limit agents to two viewings per property per day will stretch out marketing campaigns.

“One of my agents has 20 people lined up to go through to one property and that’s going to take ten days, so it’ll be an interesting challenge,” he says.

Tommy’s Real Estate managing director in Wellington David Platt says his agents will be extremely busy during Level 3, with 50 properties lined up to hit the market this week.

“We roughly have 75 houses listed at the moment in our city office and if you add another 50 to it, we should be back fairly busy,” he says.

He says the lifting of the lockdown will be a big positive for the market. “It’s a change in a good direction and I think we’ll be 70 to 80 per cent back to normal,” he adds.

In Auckland's high-end market, agents report a surge in buyer enquiry from ex-pats.

Ollie Wall, from Walls Real Estate, says: “We have lots of people lined up to get straight into it. Many of them were sitting around and considering things, and now they are ready to hit the ground running to buy."

He says the most of the buyers his agency is dealing with are London-based Kiwis who plan to return to New Zealand. “Imagine being in London right now - conditions are much more dire over there. New Zealand has handled the Covid-19 crisis well, so we look more attractive than ever,” he says.

Wall says the expats he has been talking to are generally looking for $5m-plus three- to five-bedroom family homes in Auckland, and have family members on the ground ready to look over properties from April 28 onwards.