Auckland bucks listings trend

There's hints that demand might be easing in Auckland as new data shows the Super City is the only region in New Zealand where housing stock has increased from last year.

Thursday, September 1st 2016, 10:30AM

by Miriam Bell

Realestate.co.nz’s August data shows there continues to be extremely low levels of stock in housing markets around the country.

With the exception of Auckland, there has been a gradual decline in housing stock over and above the typical midwinter seasonal lull.

Realestate.co.nz CEO Brendon Skipper said this means that, nationally, if no new listings were to come to market, all the existing properties in New Zealand would be sold in 14 weeks.

“Auckland is the only region in the whole of New Zealand where housing stock is up compared to the same time last year.

“However, demand there appears to be easing compared to the rest of the country.”

While the number of new listings in Auckland dropped by 12.4% compared to the previous year, total Auckland housing stock levels are up by 4% for the same period.

Skipper said this tells us that homes are taking slightly longer to sell, which could be as a result of LVR restrictions.

However, the low levels of stock are continuing to benefit sellers with six regions hitting all-time high asking prices in August.

These regions are Canterbury, Nelson, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Coromandel and Auckland.

Skipper said limited inventory has resulted in a lift in asking prices.

This was most notable in Coromandel, where the region had only 141 new listings and yet hit $636,297 for the average asking price.

This was up 7.2% from the previous month and was an all-time high, Skipper said.

“In the case of Auckland, the average asking price was $907,986 in August, which is yet another record, but still has some way to go before hitting the $1 million mark.”

ASB economist Kim Mundy said the data suggested that sales activity fell in August as total inventory lifted across the country, despite new listings falling.

While New Zealand’s housing market remains tight, inventory levels are beginning to rise, she said.

“This is particularly evident in Auckland, where inventory levels have been lifting for the past four months.

“Weeks of inventory have also lifted in some of New Zealand’s more recent hot spots including the Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay and Waikato.”

But Mundy said that, overall, inventory levels remain very low and this will continue to support prices.

“We expect sales activity to continue to decline over the coming months and inventory levels to keep rising as the Reserve Bank’s new investor LVR restrictions come into effect.”

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