Uncertainty clouds housing market as sellers hesitate
The number of houses available for sale nationally has climbed by nearly 75% since this time last year, Realestate.co.nz says.
A total of 26,577 houses were on the market last month, an increase of 74.7% from 15,271 last October, the property listings website’s latest figures show.
Every region had an increase in housing stock, but six regions had triple-digit increases. The biggest increase was in Nelson and Bays where the number of houses for sale was up 184.2%.
In Auckland, there were 10,340 houses on the market, up 56.6% from last October, while in Wellington there were 1645, a 62.1% increase. In Canterbury, stock was up 70.9% to 2914.
But the number of new listings nationwide fell by 16.3% in October, compared to the same time last year, and new listings were also down in 14 regions.
Realestate.co.nz spokesperson Vanessa Williams said October was usually a big month for new listings, and the drop suggested some seller hesitancy.
‘‘Uncertainty has an impact on the property market. Last year the pandemic was impacting buying and selling. Now the uncertainty has shifted to the cost of living and inflation, as well as rising interest rates.’’
This could be driving potential home sellers to sit tight in the changing landscape, she said.
But the biggest drop in new listings was in Central Otago – Lakes District, which also had the biggest monthly rise in prices.
Williams said while the number of homes for sale had increased nationwide, price movement was a mixed bag.
The average national asking price was down 2.7% annually to $919,394 in October.
Cooling asking prices in most of the main centres had driven the national average asking price downward since its peak in January, she said.
On an annual basis, Wellington prices had dropped most, down 7.7% to an average of $891,375, while Auckland prices were down 6.2% to $1.15 million.
Despite cooling prices in the major centres, 13 regions still bucked the trend with annual increases, and five regions had double-digit increases, she said.
They were the West Coast, up 22.0% to $463,184; Northland, up 16.8% to $917,761; Marlborough, up 15.1% to $805,240); Taranaki, up 12.5% to $675,330; and Canterbury, up 10.4% to $712,171.
In Central Otago – Lakes, asking prices were up 8.3% to an average of $1.54m. It was the first time any region had hit an average asking price above $1.5m.
Williams said it was not a bad time to be a seller, as easing prices tempted hesitant buyers back into the market, and there was an 11.7% increase in users of the website in October.