The month of December ended the year on a strong note with house prices up 5.8% for the 2017 calendar year. Of the 16 regions in the country, 13 saw prices increases in December. Only Marlborough, West Coast and Canterbury were negative.
New record high prices were recorded in Waikato up 11.7%, Jan-Dec to $525,000. The Bay of Plenty was up 20.4% to $598,000 and Wellington up 4.7% to $560,000. The number of sales across NZ fell compared to December 2016.
November saw a large increase in the number of houses sold across New Zealand and was the largest increase over an October month for 6 years. Every region in the country except the West Coast saw sales numbers increase over October. Prices too increased in November across the country with Auckland showing the largest increase for the month at 3.8%. November saw record prices in the following areas:
Nationally across New Zealand September house sales dropped significantly from August figures which were already down 20% compared to last year. The fall was another 8.5%. The reason almost certainly was people waiting for the result of the general election. Median prices showed no change in Auckland, Canterbury / Westland and Otago.
In August the number of properties sold across New Zealand was down by 20% compared to August last year. Every region throughout the country showed lower sales numbers than August 2016. Prices have however increased across the country last month. Auckland prices increased 1.2% compared to July. Southland, Nelson, Hawkes Bay, Manawatu / Whanganui and Marlborough all set new record price levels in August.
The July property market reflected that of a July winter month. Auckland sales were down 12.6% on June and 26.8% on July last year. Prices flattened at 0% price increase for the 2nd month in a row. Hamilton saw slowing numbers of sales with a 0.4% growth in prices over the past 3 months. Christchurch values have dropped 0.2% over the past 3 months and sales numbers have also fallen.
In June property markets continued to slow in many of the larger centres. Auckland sales were down 27% compared to June last year, the lowest June sales for the last 7 years. Prices were down about 3% over the past 3 months. Sales number have also fallen in Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin. The Canterbury market is flat with little change from last month. Tauranga showed a small price increase of 1.6% for the past 3 months.
Property prices nationally in New Zealand were steady in May but there were regional variances. In Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga prices reached a plateau. In Christchurch prices dropped slightly. Wellington and Dunedin saw continued price increases. The strongest price increases have been in Rotorua, Hawkes Bay, Whangarei, Northland and the Kaipara district.
Following the big surge in the number of house and apartment sales in March, the market saw sale volumes fall and prices stabilise across New Zealand.
The holidays and wild weather (one of the wettest April months on record) no doubt were factors in the fall offs in sales volumes. The median price for New Zealand increased by 1.0%.
In March there was a big surge in the number of house and apartment sales in New Zealand with an increase of 36% over February.
Prices increased setting a new New Zealand median price record of $546,000 with 8 out of 12 regions setting new record high median sale prices.
The February residential sales results issued by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand and Quotable Value (QV) are now available. Below are the median sales prices showing February compared to January 2017.
I think the Auckland fall in prices in February (1%) is not a trend and expect that to be reversed in the coming months. There is still a large housing shortage in Auckland and net migration is still very strong.
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