Auckland homes would ‘sell out’ in months as listings fall

If no new listings came onto the market many areas around the country would sell out in a matter of weeks.

The statement has come from one of the country’s largest property websites after July saw a “record fall” in new listings on realestate.co.nz

The latest statistics from realestate.co.nz indicated based on historical sales trends, stock in the capital would sell out in a mere six weeks. Wellington had just 899 properties available for sale and in July saw just 582 new listings, 12.5 per cent less compared to the same period in 2016.

And based on the the current listings for the country’s largest city, Auckland’s property stock would “sell out” in 23 weeks.

In Auckland new listings this July had dropped 13.9 per cent to 2703, compared to July 2016.

The total number of resi- dential properties available for sale in the city was 8019 in July.

Realestate.co.nz spokeswoman Vanessa Taylor said the 7933 new listings nationwide was the lowest number in any July month since its records began in 2007.

The site represented 97 per cent of all properties listed through registered real estate agents.

Taylor said elsewhere in the country the figures were also trending downwards.

“Of the 19 regions in New Zealand, all but one region (Nelson, which remained static), experienced a decline in the number of new listings in July compared to the previous year.”

In the North Island the areas that saw the most drop in listings, compared to the same period last year, were the Waikato, a total of 612 new listings down 27 per cent, Bay of Plenty, 565 down 26.3 per cent and Taranaki, 163 down 22.4 per cent.

Meanwhile further south, the drops were even bigger with only 150 new listings in Central Otago/Lakes falling 32.4 per cent compared to July 2016, while Otago listings dropped by 28.8 per cent, with just 237 new ones this month.

Taylor said at the same time New Zealand’s average asking prices for homes fell by 0.3 per cent from June, to $626,413 in July this year.

Auckland’s average asking price was $942,999, up 2.8 per cent from June.

The largest rise was in the Coromandel, with an 11.2 per cent lift in asking price to $761,096.

Northland followed with a 5.6 per cent rise to $557,564, Marlborough was up 5.4 per cent to $485,460 and the Central North Island up 5.1 per cent to $461,910.

The largest falls in asking price for July compared to June were in Otago, down 7.9 per cent, to $351,729 and the Wairarapa down 7 per cent to $400,208.