Provisional housing market update

Provisional housing market update

February 2016 Auckland and Northland

3 February, 2016

Provisional residential data for the Northern Region in January, from Harcourts, New Zealand’s largest real estate group, shows average sale prices continuing to rise, up 17% on the same period in 2015, to $801,472.

Harcourts CEO Chris Kennedy says this trend is likely to continue into the foreseeable future as demand for housing remains high.

“Population forecasts show Auckland will continue to grow and we currently do not have the construction levels needed to cater for this. Prices will hold or continue to rise.”

Fuelling demand is a drop in the number of new listings. In January there were 431 houses listed for sale with Harcourts compared with 588 in January 2015, a 26.7% drop.

There has also been a 10.8% drop in the total number of houses currently for sale, down from 1,666 in January 2015 to 1,486 this year.

Mr Kennedy says January 2015 was an unusually active month, however there are other contributing factors.

There are reports from sales consultants across Auckland that some people are hesitant to sell before securing another property.

The popularity of auctions is another reason.

“The auction process requires at least a three week marketing campaign. Many people choose to wait until February, when everyone is back from holiday, before selling at auction. Harcourts has a very strong auction focus so I would expect to see a marked increase in the number of listings come February.”

Mr Kennedy says with no correction in the market likely, those considering buying are better to do so sooner rather than later.

ENDS

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