Market Comment April 2017

Following a mixed outlook for the New Zealand housing market in February, March has shown traditional lifts in terms of median price, volume and activity levels, according to the latest figures released today by REINZ, source of the most complete and accurate real estate data in New Zealand.
The national median price rose $51,000 to $546,000 during March, an increase of 10% in February and a new record median, while eight of 12 regions hit new record high median sale prices: Auckland, Northland, Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu, Taranaki, Canterbury/Westland and Otago.

For the Nelson/Marlborough region, the median price rose $52,500 (+13%) compared to March 2016. Prices rose 31% in Richmond, 21% Motueka and 19% in Nelson. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the median price rose 2% compared to February.
Sales volume compared to February rose 18%, with sales rising 67% in Motueka, 34% in Marlborough/Kaikoura and 2% in Nelson.
The number of days to sell in February improved by eight days compared to February, from 36 days in February to 28 days in March. There were 13 weeks of supply across the region in March, little changed from March 2016.

For our local Motueka market and surrounds the number of new listings for March was up a little on February numbers but below the number of sold properties for the month. After a slow February, we had a bumper run on sales in March with very low median days to sell of just 38 and a median price of $536,000.
Buyer demand remains strong, with one proviso that buyers are preferring to find the right property rather than any property and alter it to suit them. I expect that we will continue to have a seller’s market over the autumn and into the winter months.

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.