Market Comment July 2017

New Zealand’s property market is showing all the signs of being a two-tier market with Auckland median house price increasing 2.5% year-on-year, but the rest of the country showing growth of 11.4% year-on-year according to the latest data from the Real Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) – source of the most complete and accurate real estate data in New Zealand.
Auckland’s median price increased to $850,500 (up from $830,000 in June 2016) and the national median excluding Auckland increased to $431,000 (up from $387,000).

Bindi Norwell, CEO, REINZ says: “While median prices in Auckland have increased slightly year-on- year, the City of Sails had the second lowest rate of growth in the country in comparison to the 8% seen in June 2016 and 27.1% increase seen in June 2015. This is evidence that the ‘Supercity’ has showed signs of price growth slowing down – if you look at the month-on-month figure it shows a drop of -0.8%.
“However, most regions across the rest of the country experienced double-digit (or close to it) growth and record median prices have been seen in three regions this month – Bay of Plenty ($555,000), again in Manawatu/Wanganui ($280,000) and Tasman ($581,000) highlighting the buoyancy across the rest of the country and the normal property cycle where regions are typically behind Auckland in terms of the growth curve,” continues Norwell.

For the Nelson/Marlborough region the median price rose $81,000 (+20%) compared to June 2016
to reach a new record high. Prices rose 74% in Marlborough Sounds, 37% in Motueka and 31% in Richmond. Sales volume compared to June 2016 fell 12%, with sales increasing 157% in Moutere-Waimea, 109% in Richmond and 71% in Wairau-Awatere.
The number of days to sell in June eased by one day compared to May, from 31 days in May to 32 days in June. Compared to June 2016 the number of days eased by four days. Over the past 10 years the number of days to sell in June across the region has averaged 44 days. There was 10 weeks of supply across the region in June, a drop fi five weeks compared to June 2016, and the third shortest level of inventory across New Zealand.

For our local Motueka market and surrounds, the number of new listings in June was almost twice that of June 16. The number of sales for June were 30% below the number recorded in the previous June and the median sale price was $532,000 up from $460,000 in June 16.
With the median days on market sitting at 49 the outlook looks good for sellers however with 3 straight months of the number of new listings exceeding sales the increased choice in properties to buy will have an effect on days on market and quite likely cool property prices.

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