Surging asking prices break new national record for third consecutive month

Canterbury and Auckland lead regions in record asking price

The average asking price of homes for sale in New Zealand in March reached a new high of $514,712, the third consecutive month of record asking prices. The latest monthly property data from realestate.co.nz also showed that the number of new listings in March was 11,870, a decline of 4.9% from the same time last year, and the lowest for March since 2009.

The new national high in average asking price of $514,712 was a small increase of 0.6% on the previous record of $511,412 set last month. The growth in asking prices in March was also reflected in different parts of the country with three regions experiencing new records, including Canterbury and Auckland.

The new high of $467,126 in Canterbury was a 1.3% increase from the previous record of $461,032 set in July last year, while Auckland’s new high of $766,912 was a 0.3% increase from the previous record of $764,424 reached last month. In addition, the Wairarapa also experienced a new high in average asking price of $357,949. The average asking price in Wellington during March 2015 was $461,905, which is 1.6% below the all time high of $469,487 set a year ago in March 2014.

CEO of realestate.co.nz, Brendon Skipper says, “there is no let up in the increase in asking price, especially with regions such as Canterbury and Auckland experiencing new highs. With the slight fall in the number of new listings in March, sellers are in a good position to maximise the value of their homes.”

The number of new listings of homes for sale across New Zealand in March was 11,870, a decrease of 4.9% from the same month last year, and a fall of 1.1% on the 12,008 new listings in February. This is the lowest number of new listings for the month of March since the 11,456 recorded six years ago in March 2009. While Canterbury saw an increase of 3.8% on the number of new listings from March last year, both Auckland and Wellington experienced falls of 5.2% and 9.2% respectively.

The national average in overall inventory of available housing stock for sale fell slightly to 23 weeks in March, close to the record low level set in January of 21.4 weeks. “The long-term national average is 36 weeks of stock. Many regions are experiencing low inventory levels, including the three major cities,” says Brendon Skipper.