Market Comment May 2017

After record national median prices in March, prices are stable and sales volumes fell across New Zealand during April as the market moved past the traditional March peak and into a typical cyclical April, according to the latest figures released today by REINZ, source of the most recent, complete and accurate real estate data in New Zealand.

Three regions hit new record high median sale prices in April 2017 as the national median price rose 10.4% to $540,000 year-on- year. Regions seeing record median prices were Waikato (up 22.3% year-on-year to $489,200), Wellington (up 18.8% year-on- year to $537,000) and Otago (up 12.7% to year-on-year to $381,000).

For the Nelson/Marlborough region, buyer activity remains good with the impact of the LVR restrictions having less of an impact than initially expected. The listings situation remains stable, albeit at historically low levels, and vendor expectations remain firm, although not out of line with the general trend in the market.

For our local Motueka market and surrounds, the number of new listings for April were on par with this time last year. The number of sales fell below this time last year and the previous month. While the sales volume is down the market has remained firm with the average sale price 32% above the average current capital value and the median days on market at 39.
As we enter the winter market I expect to see prices remain firm as traditionally the number of buyers remain fairly static but new listings drop back a bit.

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.