App use surges as serious home buyers seek competitive edge

National average asking price in June hits new record of $537,682

The highly competitive property market has sparked a surge in use of the realestate.co.nz mobile app. Not only has the total number of realestate.co.nz mobile app users grown at a much faster rate than other platforms in the last twelve months, but the average mobile app user visits the property portal significantly more often than they did the same time last year.

“While the number of buyers who use the website on any platform – desktop, mobile or tablet – has shown strong growth of 33% compared to the same time last year, mobile app users have increased by an even greater 44%,” reports Brendon Skipper, CEO of realestate.co.nz.

“But more significantly, mobile app users now use the realestate.co.nz app even more frequently than they did before. Today, the average smartphone user visits the app 16% more often than they did a year ago in June 2014.

“Clearly, serious home buyers have realised that there is a competitive advantage to be gained by inspecting online listings as frequently as possible, and the realestate.co.nz mobile app provides a powerful platform to search for properties anytime, from anywhere.

“In addition, New Zealanders are clearly more comfortable and savvier in maximising the increasingly comprehensive toolset that comes with today’s smartphones and the applications that are available to them,” says Skipper.

 

June property data shows increase in national average asking price

While only eight of the nineteen national regions showed an increase in average asking price in June, these increases were so significant that the national average asking price rose by 0.9% to a new record of $537,682 in June. Three regions in particular saw a strong increase in the average asking price, with the Auckland market having the biggest impact nationally due to its size.

For the first time, the average asking price for Auckland homes rose above $800,000. The average asking price of $820,016 in June 2015 is 3.4% higher than the previous record of $793,260 recorded in May.

Sellers in Central Otago asked on average 9% more for their homes in June than in May, reaching an average asking price of $762,284. Gisborne asking prices experienced even higher relative growth of 10.3%, but from a lower base – the average asking price in Gisborne in June was $287,140.

Other regions that saw monthly increases in average asking price in June include: Manawatu/Wanganui (+4.8%), Taranaki (+4.5%), Otago (+2.1%), Canterbury (+1.8%) and Central North Island (+1.7%).

Major population centres such as Wellington and the Waikato saw a small decrease in the average asking price. In Wellington, it went down by 1% to $457,488, and in the Waikato by 0.5% to $385,325.

 

 

Property demand outstrips supply

A total of 8,748 new properties were listed nationwide in June this year, 2.6% more than the corresponding month in 2014. Of these, 3,138 were in Auckland. The only other region that saw more than a thousand new properties come onto the market was Canterbury, with 1,117. More than 500 new properties were listed for sale in each of Waikato, the Bay of Plenty and Wellington.

Despite these new properties coming onto the market, the national average in overall inventory of available housing stock for sale remains at an all-time low of only 20 weeks. Inventory is a measure of supply and demand that indicates how long it would take, in theory, for all the current properties on the market to be sold at the current average rate of sales. Based on these figures, only two of the 19 regions in the country are currently rated as buyers’ markets: Southland and West Coast.