House prices on the way down
Market is cooling, some buyers finding it hard to get finance
Hawke’s Bay house prices have continued to decline following another slow month for house sales in April. While one district in Hawke’s Bay bucked the trend, an expert says sellers in the region are increasingly “concerned that they may not achieve the prices they had originally hoped for”.
Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) has released its monthly housing report, which showed 127 homes sold during April across the region.
That was the lowest sales count for any April month since 2011, excluding the nationwide lockdown in April 2020 when the industry came to a halt.
Comparatively, 592 homes have now sold in Hawke’s Bay during the first four months of 2022, well down from 811 in the same period last year.
Tougher lending restrictions and increasing interest rates are two of the biggest factors cooling off the market and reducing the number of buyers.
REINZ data has highlighted house prices are also being impacted.
The latest data revealed the median price for houses sold in April across Hawke’s Bay was $770,000, down from $796,000 in March and a record $830,000 in November 2021.
Despite that downward trend one district, Napier, bucked the trend and posted a record median sale price of $900,000 for April.
While those median sale figures are helpful, they do not necessarily give an accurate picture of house price trends, as
factors such as the type of homes and properties being sold in any given month can influence the figures.
REINZ uses another tool to better track house price trends called the House Price Index, which takes into consideration a wider range of data.
That index has also highlighted that house prices have been slowly declining in recent months in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne.
REINZ chief executive Jen Baird said
securing finance remained a challenge for buyers.
“According to agents in the area, the most significant impact on the market in April was the rise in interest rates and uncertainty around lending conditions,” Baird said. “Buyers are deciding whether they are willing or able to pay the current prices, and vendors are concerned that they may not achieve the prices they had originally hoped for.”
Quotable Value Hawke’s Bay valuer
Damien Hall said people’s perceptions were changing in the real estate market. “There has been a significant rise in the number of listings and properties are taking much longer to sell, though the expectations of some vendors remains high after the rapid growth we experienced last year.”
Remarkably, at the end of April, there were about 880 homes on the market in Hawke’s Bay compared to 360 homes a year ago.