No change in median Auckland house price this month: REINZ

Tuesday 12th May 2015

The median price of an Auckland house didn't change between March and April, at $720,000, according to the latest figures released by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand, although there has been a $108,500, or 17.7 percent increase in the Auckland median house price since April last year.

The figures are the first to be released since REINZ reissued its historical series yesterday, significantly reducing its previously published path for house prices in the country's largest city.

Where REINZ was previously saying the median Auckland house price rose 20.2 percent in the year to March, it now says that increase was 16.7 percent.

However, the trend across Auckland was not even. On the North Shore, the median price was 6.9 percent higher in April than in March, at $925,000, while the median in Auckland city was lower by 7.2 percent between March and April, at $789,000 last month.

“The strong price movements in Auckland, particularly on the North Shore and in Rodney, continue to be driven by high demand from all types of property buyers and from a lack of sufficient new supply, both new builds and listings of existing properties,” said REINZ chief executive Colleen Milne in a statement. “New builds take time to be completed. Meanwhile the very low level of new listings suggests that potential vendors are considering factors other than just price in making the decision whether to sell their properties.”

Sales volumes in April reflected seasonal patterns, down 25 percent in Auckland from March, although they were 25 percent above sales last March, and the annual increases were even more marked for North Shore and Auckland City, with 53 percent and 44 percent increases respectively.

“Auckland continues to dominate the real estate market in terms of price movements, but we are starting to see some of the smaller regions show improvements in the number of sales being made and price increases," said Milne. "Regions such as Northland, Hawkes Bay and Central Otago Lakes, which represent 7.5% of national sales, are seeing solid gains in both price and sales volumes."

The Manawatu/Wanganui, Taranaki, Wellington and Nelson/Marlborough regions all showed falls in median prices over the year to April, of 3.2 percent ($222,000), 4 percent ($297,500), 0.9 percent ($411,250), and 1.1 percent ($356,000) respectively.

The Central Otago Lakes region led the country, with the median house price up 18.2 percent over the year to April to $532,000, although the median price slipped back 4.3 percent between March and April.

Elsewhere, in Canterbury/Westland, the median price was $425,000 up 7.6 percent, with the Christchurch median rising 6.8 percent to $440,750. The North Canterbury median rose 11.7 percent over the year to April, to $425,000.

The Dunedin median was up 11.5 percent over the year at $288,500, while the Otago region median rose 7.7 percent to $260,000.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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