4.5% increase in million-dollar-plus properties sold in 2018

The number of properties sold around the country for a million dollars or more during 2018 increased by 4.5% when compared to 2017 (10,615 up from 10,163). However, this figure is down significantly on 2016, when 11,648 million-dollar plus properties were sold around the country according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s (REINZ) Million Dollar Price Report.

In the Auckland market, the number of million-dollar properties sold during 2018 fell by -1.6% when compared to the previous year (7,888 down from 8,014). This was the lowest number of million-dollar-plus properties sold in Auckland for four years.

Looking at the New Zealand excluding Auckland picture, the number of million-dollar plus properties increased year-on-year by 26.9% (2,727 up from 2149 – an additional 578 properties).

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ says: “Volumes of million-dollar plus sales were up year-on-year by 4.5% across the country. This figure has been pulled down by the ‘Auckland impact’. If you remove Auckland from the picture, then the number of million-dollar plus properties actually significantly increased 26.9%, which has been largely driven by the regional growth the country has been experiencing.

Regional Breakdown

The region with the largest year-on-year increase was Marlborough which saw an increase of 90.9% - from 11 properties sold for $1 million-dollars or more in 2017 to 21 properties sold for $1 million-dollars or more in 2018. However, these numbers are inflated due to the small sample size.

13 out of 15 regions saw year-on-year increases in number of properties for $1 million plus, with Southland remaining steady, and Auckland being the only region with a decrease.

“All regions except Auckland and Southland reached record numbers of properties sold for $1 million or more in 2018,” says Bindi Norwell.

Regions with the strongest increases in the number of million-dollar plus sales year-on-year in addition to Marlborough were:

• Manawatu/Wanganui +83.3%: up from 12 to 22 properties
• Northland +62.3%: up from 69 to 112 properties
• Gisborne +50.0%: up from 4 to 6
• Nelson +45.7%: up from 35 to 51.
Canterbury was one of two regions with an annual rise in the number of properties sold for $3 million plus in 2018, increasing 140.0% (12 properties up from 5 in 2017). Wellington was the only other region with an increase, going from 5 to 6 properties.

Wellington was the only region to see an increase in the number of properties sold in excess of $5 million (from 0 in 2017 to 1 in 2018), all other regions remained on par with the numbers sold in 2017 or decreased in volume.

“Across the country, 71 properties were sold in the $5 million plus category – 63 in Auckland (compared to 76 in 2017), 5 in Otago (compared to 6 in 2017) 1 in Bay of Plenty (the same as in 2017), 1 in Canterbury (also remaining the same) and 1 in Wellington (up from 0 in 2017),” concludes Norwell.

For further information, please contact Dee Crooks, Head of Communications at REINZ, on 021 953 308.

Table 1: Number of million-dollar plus properties sold in NZ

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