Firmer rates put brakes on property market
While higher interest rates and pre-election jitters have knocked back house sales, the residential property market is still more bouyant than a year ago.
Wednesday, August 4th 1999, 12:00AM
by Paul McBeth
While higher interest rates and pre-election jitters have knocked back house sales, the residential property market is still more buoyant than a year ago.
The Real Estate Institute has just come out with June figures for residential property sales, showing that:
The number of houses sold nationwide in June was down nearly 14% on the previous month.
However, the median house price rose from $167,875 in May to $172,000 in June.
And compared with a year ago, the picture is rosier still. Sales volumes were up 21.5% on last June and the median house price was 4.2 per cent higher.
National President of the Institute Max Oliver says that there's a broad expectation that interest rates will continue to firm over the rest of the year. He says the increasing rate of fixed interest rate increases is also expected to cause a corresponding rise in floating rates.
"The majority of potential home buyers will proceed with more caution during an election year, adopting a 'wait and see' approach," he says.
The Institute also found that:
The first home market has slowed, due to rising interest rates
There's been a marked lift in prices at the top end of the market because of a shortage of properties; and
Southland experienced the biggest surge in house prices during June, with the median price up 24.5 per cent on the previous month.
The Wellington market was also bullish: median prices rose 10.6 per cent over the month. However, the latest quarterly survey by Massey University's Real Estate Analysis Unit found that the outlook for urban Wellington prices only remains positive for houses in the low and medium price ranges. (see earlier story).