Sellers still keen to meet the market

Sellers remain confident in the residential housing market and appear resolved to focus on attracting what little buyer interest there is rather than on achieving the highest price, according to Realestate.co.nz.

Wednesday, July 7th 2010, 12:00AM

by The Landlord

In the site's latest Property Report, it shows that although sellers remain confident in the market, asking prices remained flat in June at $410,058 compared to the 4% drop seen between April and May, to $407,349, a drop which reflected a pragmatic reaction by sellers eager to "meet the market" in price terms.

"This would seem to indicate a resolve amongst sellers to focus on selling rather than any raised price expectation," the report said.

The current asking price expectation remains 4.4% below the peak of the market back in October 2007, which was $429,033.

Despite a lack of buyers, sellers also seemed motivated to continue listing properties in June, with a total of over 11,100 new homes coming onto the market last month, 5% down from the previous month but 16% up on June last year. Although figures are 5% down from May, Realestate.co.nz points out that when the expected winter slowdown is taken into account with a seasonally adjusted factor, there was actually a 5% increase from the previous month.

Over the 12 months to June, a total of 145,920 new listings came onto the market, up 8% on the same 12 months to June 2009.

The level of unsold homes slipped marginally in June to 45.3 weeks, of 51,916 properties, although remains significantly above the same month last year when the total was 35 weeks.

Asking prices throughout the regions are coming under pressure, reflecting a quieter market, with 11 of the 19 regions reporting asking prices are 0.8% below the recent three month average.

The main metropolitan regions of Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury all showed an easing of asking prices, -1.7%, -0.4% and -1.3% respectively, while Queenstown Lakes showed a significant increase in asking price from $523,760 to $642,710 along with a 29% increase in new listings.

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