Sellers hang back as market cools
If you are looking to buy a house in the upper half of the North Island at the moment, you may have limited options.
New data from Realestate.co.nz shows that the number of new property listings in August fell 17.5 per cent across the country, year-on-year. Only 8729 new listings were registered across the country during August.
Only the West Coast and Hawke’s Bay had more listings than last year.
The upper half of the North Island saw the most dramatic falls in new listings compared to the same period last year, with Auckland down 22.7 per cent, Waikato 23.2 per cent, Northland 24 per cent and Coromandel 37.6 per cent.
Available housing stock fell everywhere except Auckland, Central Otago Lakes and Waikato.
But realestate.co.nz spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said demand was also low, down 8.5 per cent, which meant prices were stable. Demand dropped most in Auckland, Waikato and Wellington.
Of the 19 regions, demand for Auckland property dropped 23.9 per cent, placing the country’s largest city at the bottom of the table.
Demand is measured as the increase or decrease in the number of views per listing in each region.
Asking prices were still at record highs in Waikato, Taranaki, Wellington, Central Otago Lakes and Wairarapa. Wellington’s average asking price is now at $579,423 but demand was low. By contrast in the Wairarapa, the average asking price was up 7.5 per cent to $430,387, and demand was also up 11.2 per cent, placing it sixth of the 19 regions across the country.
For the first time in history, the Central Otago/ Lakes District broke the $900,00 mark in asking prices [$919,460], recording a significant lift (up 9.1 per cent) from the previous month.