New Zealand property market driven to new high

Surging asking prices in Auckland during January push New Zealand property market to new high

AUCKLAND, 12 February 2015 - The average asking price of homes for sale in Auckland surged to a new high of $750,023 during January, which was a 2.4% increase on the previous record of $732,240 set in June last year, according to the latest monthly data from Realestate.co.nz.

The expectations of sellers across New Zealand drove the national average asking price to a new high of $498,471, a slight increase on the previous record of $497,840 set in November. The January average asking prices in Wellington and Canterbury were $463,214 and $446,919 respectively, which were slightly below records set during 2014.

In addition to the increase in average asking price, new listings of homes for sale were also up, with January experiencing 9,536 new listings, an increase of 2.9% on the same month last year and an increase of 15% on December. Of the main centres, Canterbury experienced the biggest increase year-on-year in new listings with 1,288, an increase of 19% on the same month last year.

The CEO of Realestate.co.nz Brendon Skipper says, “while January traditionally attracts more new listings than December, last month was particularly active with the strongest start to the year for some time. This bodes well for the first quarter, as February and March are usually some of the busiest months of the year for new listings.”

January also saw year-on-year growth in email enquiries from prospective buyers to Realestate.co.nz, with a 188% increase on the same month in 2014.

Despite the increase in new listings, overall inventory* of all available housing stock for sale in New Zealand fell in January to its lowest level since April 2007. The long-term national average is 36 weeks, however in January inventory fell to 21.4 weeks of stock. In Auckland, where the long-term average is 26 weeks, inventory fell to just 9.4 weeks, the lowest recorded for the region since Realestate.co.nz first started compiling statistics more than eight years ago.

“There appears to be no let up in the seemingly unstoppable climb in average asking price of home sellers, not just in Auckland, but across the country. Coupled with the fall in inventory, the current property market is one of the most favourable for sellers for some time.” says Mr Skipper.

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