Median house price drops

The median sale price of real estate across New Zealand dropped $ 4000 to $ 516,000 in December according to the Real Estate Institute. Take Auckland out of the equation and the national figure is $ 420,000.

In Auckland the median sale price last month was $ 840,000, down 1.4 per cent on November’s $ 852,000 ($ 868,000 in October). Sales volumes across the SuperCity were 2 per cent lower than in November.

Across the country in December sales totalled 6533, a drop of 11 per cent on December 2015.

The institute’s CEO Bindi Norwell says the underlying trend is one of rising prices across New Zealand coupled with flat or falling sales volumes in many areas of the country.

“In Auckland, the long- term median price trend has been consistently rising, despite a slight easing compared to November 2016,” she says.

Ongoing supply issues and a growing population in the SuperCity are being countered by higher fixed rate home loans and the 40 per cent LVR on investment properties. The next few months will be interesting.

Investors blamed

A Property Institute survey reveals foreign investors are blamed by the public for having the biggest impact on last year’s soaring house prices in Auckland.

The institute’s CEO, Ashley Church, commissioned the poll, conducted by Curia Market Research, to get a feel for people’s perceptions about property.

The survey found that geographically, by gender, political persuasion and age group — “foreign investors” were nominated across the board as having the “biggest impact” on prices.

Church says: “I’m surprised by some of the results — particularly the unexpectedly broad view that foreign investors are having the biggest impact on the property market — but as a snapshot of perceptions these views are important and shouldn’t be ignored.”

He says the views expressed in the survey aren’t necessarily correct, but they are an important barometer of market sentiment.

More than half of those surveyed ( 56 per cent) thought house price inflation would continue in the next six months, 8 per cent picked a decrease and 28 per cent didn’t expect price inflation to change.

Church says the current slowdown in the Auckland market is due to the Reserve Bank’s LVR restrictions, rather than any loss of confidence.