Regional property market benefits

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Low levels of housing stock in some regions of New Zealand are continuing to benefit sellers, according to figures released today by realestate.co.nz.

Real–time market statistics from the site, which has the largest number of residential for sale property listings in the country, show that with the exception of Auckland, there has been a gradual decline in housing stock over and above the typical midwinter seasonal lull.

“This has resulted in a lift in asking prices, most notably in the Coromandel, where the region had only 141 new listings and yet hit $636,297 for the average asking price. This is up 7.2 per cent from the previous month and is an all-time high,” says realestate.co.nz CEO Brendon Skipper.

Coromandel is just one of six regions nationally that have hit an all-time high in August. The other five regions are Canterbury, Nelson & Bays, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Auckland.

With inventory levels continuing to fall, the property market remains a sellers’ market.

 

“Nationally, it means that if no new listings were to come to market, all the existing properties in New Zealand would be sold in 14 weeks.

“Auckland is the only region in the whole of New Zealand where housing stock is up compared to the same time last year. However, demand appears to be easing compared to the rest of the country,” says Brendon.

The number of new listings in Auckland dropped by 12.4 per cent compared to the previous year, however the total Auckland housing stock levels are up by four per cent for the same period.

“This tells us that homes are taking slightly longer to sell, which could be as a result of LVR restrictions,” says Brendon.

Taking a snapshot in a moment of time on one day in late August, there were 21,462 houses for sale across New Zealand, which is down 24.8 per cent from the previous year.

“This number can be misleading as it doesn’t take into account the number of properties which have come onto the market during that month and subsequent sales, but it does tell us it is still very much a sellers’ market.

“The market data we draw from realestate.co.nz shows that the average Auckland asking price for all residential property types was $907,986 in August, which is yet another record, but still has some way to go before hitting the $1 million mark,” comments Brendon.