Photo: 123RF
New Zealand gold investors are taking advantage of record high prices to cash in their investments.
Local precious metal merchants who facilitate the trading are seeing a lift in investors selling gold bars and coins.
Auckland dealer MyGold chief executive Rich Elliott said it was not all one way traffic either.
"We think this very strong price action that we're seeing at the moment will continue," Elliott said.
"Particularly if you look longer term, it's going to be one of those assets that people absolutely need to hold.
"If you go back 20 years when the gold price was US$400 it continues to increase in value with the amount of money that's being printed, the trillions of dollars.
"We are seeing a lot of people selling to cash in on the high prices and the demand on the other side as well."
Elliott said the outlook for gold was likely to favour buyers in the long term.
"The vast majority of customers who have ever purchased from us have not sold back, they are long-term investors."
Gold has historically held up well in times of high inflation, market volatility and geopolitical uncertainty.
Because of this, people turn to the metal to protect and build their wealth.
"We live in such a global economy, what affects other countries, affects us as well," Elliot said.
"The reason's for people owning gold and silver are still the same - in fact they're more relevant today than they have been in the past."
Elliot had seen a big leap in the demand from investors for gold since the pandemic which had continued.
Gold is currently trading at US$2250 (NZD$3780) an ounce, just off the all-time high of US$2265 it reached earlier in the session on 1 April.