Market ends the year with a fizz

If you were trying to sell a house, last month was not the time to do it.

Data from the Real Estate Institute shows the end of 2018 was a fizzer for the property market.

The number of houses sold across New Zealand dropped 13 per cent compared with December 2017, making it the quietest December in seven years.

In Auckland, sales fell 24.3 per cent to the lowest December level for 10 years.

It now takes a median 35 days to sell a property nationwide, and 39 days in Auckland – the longest time recorded in any December month since 2001.

Real Estate Institute chief executive Bindi Norwell said December was usually quiet as people prepared for the Christmas holidays.

‘‘December 2018 was extremely quiet . . . Additionally, 12 out of 16 regions saw an annual decrease in the number of properties sold.’’

Taranaki also had a big drop in sales, down 23 per cent.

Wellington’s were down 16.2 per cent, while West Coast and Tasman saw a lift in turnover, up 42.9 per cent and 29.4 per cent respectively.

The national median house price increased 1.5 per cent year on year to $560,000. In Auckland, prices rose

0.2 per cent for the region as a whole to a median $862,000.

The house price index, which includes the values of houses that have not been sold recently, showed Auckland values dropped 1.7 per cent on the year before.

Excluding Auckland, values rose

8 per cent year-on-year. Economist Brad Olsen, of Infometrics, said there was a twotrack market in New Zealand. While the biggest city was slow and soft, the rest of New Zealand was still ‘‘playing catch-up’’.

Susan Edmunds