National MarketWatch January 2015
The latest residential housing figures from New Zealand’s largest real estate group, Harcourts showed a strong finish to
2014 with written sales up in most parts of the country compared to last year. The Central Region experienced the
biggest gains (up 25.5%) followed by the Northern Region (up 16.6%) with buyers eager to settle before the New Year. New
listings and property on hand were down in both regions compared to last year and we expect the tightening in supply to
drive prices up in 2015.
Christchurch Metro and the Northern Region shared the honours for the biggest gain in average house price in 2014, both
with an 11% increase overall for the year.
The upswing we saw in the Wellington market last month continued into December with average house prices breaking the
$400,000 mark for the first time. This milestone came amid steady activity in the region with listings and written sales
up strongly for the December month.
Overall, we saw a decrease in supply in most regions in December. Christchurch bucked the national trend with an
increase in property on hand of 27% compared to last year providing further evidence that the city is starting to
achieve equilibrium between residential supply and demand. However, we do expect the average sale price for the city to
break the $500,000 mark in early 2015.
You can read the full market analysis attached or at harcourts.co.nz