February Market Update

Aucklanders are once again starting to put their houses on the market, according to the latest figures released on 14 Feb 2017 by Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), source of the most recent, complete and accurate real estate data in New Zealand.
After months of record low numbers of houses available for sale across Auckland, the number of properties for sale in the region jumped by 1,135 (17%) compared to January 2016. This contrasts with declining numbers of properties for sale nationwide, with 3,743 fewer houses for sale in January compared to 12 months ago. Excluding Auckland, the number of properties for sale has fallen by 4,878 (-22%) over the past 12 months.
REINZ CEO Bindi Norwell says: “Market fundamentals remain the same, with a rising population, housing shortage and historically low, although potentially rising, interest rates. We await the March data with interest, as a clearer picture will emerge of where the market is likely to head through 2017.”

For the Nelson/Marlborough region the median price across the region rose $14,250 (+3%) compared with December 2016 with prices rising 17% in Richmond, 5% in Marlborough/Kaikoura and 1% in Nelson.
REINZ Chief Executive Officer, Bindi Norwell noted that, “First home buyers are now finding more competition from other buyers making overall competition for properties more intense in some price brackets. Investor interest from outside the region remains strong as well. There has been an uplift in listings during January which has helped ease the situation a little.

For our local Motueka market and surrounds the number of new listings was very weak compared with January 2016 and like December, a large proportion of these properties were in the surrounding areas rather than in town, therefore residential properties remain in short supply. The number of property sales for January were about half what they were in January 2016, with the median price up from $390,000 to $535,000 for the same period, on average sales prices for January were 25% above the current capital value.

With continuing low numbers of properties for sale the market looks set to remain a sellers market with one proviso, that even with historically low interest rates, buyers still have a borrowing limit and as they reach this limit they are tending to favour homes that are new or recently renovated as they do not appear to have the will or capital for renovation projects.

Content and statistics quoted in this article are sourced from REINZ and in-house, while we endeavor to keep the figures as accurate as possible they cannot be guaranteed.