Stable house prices in Auckland

The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) released their November Monthly Property Report late last week.  Excerpts from that report showed that the median house price for New Zealand increased by 6.5% from November 2017.  However, Auckland’s median house price dropped -1.5% to $867,000, down from $880,000 in November 2017, but was up from last month by 0.3%.   Auckland saw the median number of days to sell a property increase by 2 days to 37 days (up from 35 in November 2017). This is the lowest median days to sell since December 2017.  The number of properties sold by auction in November decreased as well –  524 properties down from 653 properties in November 2017.

Bindi Norwell, REINZ CEO, commented “Looking at the Auckland market, there were some areas that achieved strong prices during November including Auckland City’s median price of $999,000 the highest price in 17 months, Franklin District saw the highest median price in 6 months of $700,000 and North Shore City had the highest median price in 8 months ($1,041,000). However, on the flip side, the Rodney District saw a year-on-year decrease of -11.3% and Manukau City had an annual fall of -2.2%”.

“November saw the Auckland market continue on its stable pattern of median prices in the $850,000 – $880,000 bracket. Results varied across the region with Franklin District seeing an 11.3% price uplift, yet Rodney saw an 11% fall in prices annually, highlighting the disparate results across our largest city. Vendors are meeting the market in terms of price, but they are taking their time resulting in longer days on the market, especially in some suburbs. There are very few cash ready buyers and banks’ pre-approvals cannot be relied upon as approved cash, but this only affects the length of the negotiation and not the overall sales. December is likely to see a steady market with prices remaining at current levels.”