Thursday 18th of November 2004

Spring finally arrived for the New Zealand residential property market in October with increased sales and a new record national median selling price, according to the National President of the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Inc), Mr Howard Morley. The national median selling price hit $252,500 in October, up from the September record of $250,000 as the winter chill, which had gripped the market for several months, thawed. Both sales and median days to sell improved with sales up from 7,854 in September to 8,191 in October, and median days to sell down from 31 to 30 in October. The four largest regions, Auckland, Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Gisborne, Wellington and Canterbury/Westland all experienced increased median selling prices. Around the country eight regions increased their medians while three decreased. Northland region saw its median decline from $195,000 to $185,000 but on relatively low sales volume of 274 sales compared with 273 in September. The Auckland region median was up from $337,000 to $340,000 however turnover at 2,667 was down on the September volume of 2,682, and nearly 1,000 sales lower than the October 2003 sales of 3,666. Auckland days to sell lengthened slightly from 31 to 32 suggesting that the Auckland market was still subject to a degree of caution, which according to Mr Morley, “is driven mainly by recent interest rates increases and suggestions by some media commentators of big decreases in prices which, although not apparent from the REINZ statistics, have affected confidence in New Zealand’s largest property market. “We believe that recent reduction in interest rates and the fact that it now seems clear that the Auckland property market is successfully resisting predictions of an imminent Armageddon, will help to improve confidence in coming months.” The Waikato/BOP/Gisborne median was up from $212,500 to $230,000 while Hawkes Bay also rallied after earlier falls during the year with a median up from $196,100 to $217,000, but on very low turnover. Manawatu/Wanganui was down slightly from $146,000 to $145,000 while Taranaki was up from $158,500 to $161,500, but like Hawkes Bay on much lower sales, down from 212 in September to 184 in October. Wellington performed strongly with the median up from $270,000 to $280,000 and sales staged a good recovery up from 736 in September to 950 in October. Nelson Marlborough’s median was up from $250,000 in September to $270,000 in October but still on relatively low volumes. Canterbury/Westland was up from $223,250 to $227,000 on a very small increase in sales volume while Otago was also up from $186,550 to $195,500 but Southland slipped from $132,000 to $121,350 on low turnover. On a 12 month basis prices are up 11.23 per cent from the $227,000 median of October 2003, but sales are well down on the October 2003 figure of 10,923. In the major centres, Metropolitan Auckland’s median was up from $339,000 to $340,000 with the Auckland City median down slightly from $385,000 to $382,500, Hamilton City was up from $235,000 to $237,000 and Tauranga was up from $265,000 to $290,000. The Hutt Valley median was up slightly from $235,000 to $235,100 and Wellington Central was up from $311,000 to $332,000, but on lower turnover which would have affected the median price figure. Christchurch City’s median was up from $236,500 to $243,000 and Dunedin City recorded a similar increase up from $191,000 to $200,000. The breakdown of sales by price brands suggested that the lower end of the market was recovering more quickly than the top end, Mr Morley noted. Sales under $400,000 had increased from 6,336 in September to 6,604 in October, while sales in the $400,001 to $600,000 band remained largely unchanged at 1,045 (1,025 in September) and sales over $600,000 were up slightly from 493 to 542.