Housing prices fall up to 30%

Property prices in some parts of Auckland have fallen by more than a quarter, year on year.

New data from the Real Estate Institute shows sales activity around the city in the six months to the end of March, compared with the same time the year before.

The suburb of Mt Albert had the biggest price fall, from a median $1.170 million last year to $805,250 this year – a drop of 31.2 per cent.

Royal Oak had the next biggest drop, from $1.160m in 2018 to $865,000 this year, or 25.4 per cent.

Long Bay was in third place, with a drop of 24.8 per cent. Even exclusive suburbs such as Herne Bay reported price falls.

But other parts of the city still experienced price increases.

In Takapuna, the median price rose 30 per cent from $1m last year to $1.3m.

Onehunga was in second place, with an increase of 19.4 per cent. Other locations with rising prices included Morningside, Rosehill, Oteha, Milford, Glen Innes, Grafton and Stonefields.

Real Estate Institute chief executive Bindi Norwell said Takapuna was often popular.

‘‘But given the cooling house price growth which has been recorded on Auckland’s North Shore recently, the latest figures may come as a surprise to some.

‘‘As for Glen Innes, the Tamaki Regeneration programme is likely to have played a part in the significant price growth there as the community continues to see a number of new houses being built and the promise of a more attractive and sustainable place to live for existing and new residents.

‘‘While not showing as significant an increase as some other suburbs, Stonefields has been holding and growing its price, while others around it have been falling or growing at a much slower rate.’’

She said it was not a surprise that some central suburbs had experienced price weakness.

‘‘Suburbs such as Mt Eden, Westmere and Herne Bay have been slowly declining in price for a while now.’’

Infometrics economist Brad Olsen said there would be variation depending on the balance of unaffordability, buyer interest, availability of housing, and access to credit.

‘‘We’ve broadly expected that prices in the north of Auckland would see stronger price growth, simply because of the constrained supply and lack of new building volumes, compared to the south of Auckland, where there is more land available.’’