Industry ho-hum about property plateau
By Andrea Milner
May sales did lift a touch the REINZ data shows, but nowhere near enough to reverse the April drop in turnover. For two months now sales have been noticeably lower than they were at the end of last year. Moreover, turnover is lower than it was in May 2006. ASB economist Nick Tuffley says the Reserve Bank may see these as tentative signs that the market is starting to cool, but notes that median days to sell remain low – “not the sign of a market that is collapsing by any means”.
Kieran Trass says his Internet market monitoring site Suburbwatch’s latest data is also clearly evidencing a slowdown, but that investors are unlikely to see a flood of “bargain priced properties in the near future”.
Price growth trends have been levelling off in the last nine months (apart from the recent surge since early this year) primarily as a result, says Trass, of property being relatively unaffordable, which in turn was mainly the result of value growth rates being so strong for so long.
“A crash is still highly unlikely though, but more of a plateau is expected around current value levels for a while as the market adjusts to higher prices combined now with higher interest rates,” he predicts.
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