Although sales in May were up 15.9% compared with April they were down 14.8% compared with May 2013 and the overall trend is downwards with all regions seeing an annual decline.
Prices increased nationally by $38,000 to a national median price of $430,000, but are down $2,250 from April 2014, the data also shows.
REINZ chief executive Helen O’Sullivan pointed out that it is the second month in a row that sales have declined compared to a year ago. ‘The easing trend in the number of sales continues, with all regions recording a decline in sales volume in May compared to 12 months ago,’ she said.
‘We would normally expect an increase in sales in May compared to April, however, after taking seasonal factors into account the increase was just 1.6%. This leads us to conclude that the drop in sales in April due to the combination of Easter and ANZAC Day has not created an offsetting increase in sales in May,’ she explained.
She pointed out that the weakening trend is also showing up in the number of days to sell with five regions seeing an increase of a week or more in the number of days to sell between April and May.
At the national level the number of days to sell is about in line with the 10 year average, however, for a number of regions the result for May is noticeably higher than the 10 year average.
‘While the growth in the national median price is almost 10% compared to May 2013, the driving force for this increase are the Auckland and Canterbury/Westland regions. Together these two regions represent almost 53% of all sales, but contributed 76% of the uplift in the median price,’ O’Sullivan said.
She added that other regions such as Hawkes Bay, Manawatu/Wanganui, Wellington, Central Otago Lakes, Otago and Southland contributed just 6% of the uplift in the median price, despite representing almost 25% of the national sales total.
Overall the national median house price fell by 0.5% from $432250 in April, to $430,000 in May. Compared to May 2013 the national median house price increased by 9.7%, with seven regions recording an increase in the median price.
Some 66% of the increase in the national median price compared to May last year occurred in Auckland, with Canterbury/Westland contributing 20% of the increase and Waikato/Bay of Plenty contributing 7%. Together these three regions accounted for 93% of the increase in the median price between May 2013 and May 2014.
Canterbury/Westland recorded the largest increase in median price compared to May 2013, with a 15.3% increase, followed by Auckland with a 10.6% increase and Central Otago Lakes with a 7.3% increase. Compared to April, Central Otago Lakes recorded the largest increase in median price, up 10.9%, followed by Hawkes Bay with 5.9% and Canterbury/Westland with 5.1%.
The REINZ Stratified Housing Price Index, which adjusts for some of the variations in the mix that can impact on the median price, is 6.5% higher than May 2013, at 3925.1. The Auckland Index has risen 9.4% compared to May 2013, with the Christchurch Index up 9% and the Wellington Index up 1.1%.
Properties took four days longer to sell in May compared to April at 38 days. Compared to May 2013, the median number of days to sell was three days longer. Four regions saw an improvement in the number of days to sell between May 2013 and May 2014, with Central Otago Lakes recording the largest improvement of 30 days. Auckland saw its number of days to sell ease by three days.
For the month of May, Canterbury/Westland and Auckland recorded the shortest days to sell at 34 days, followed by Otago at 40 days, Wellington at 43 days and Taranaki at 44 days. Manawatu/Wanganui recorded the longest number of days to sell at 62 days, followed by Northland and Hawkes Bay with 61 days. Over the past 10 years the median days to sell for the month of May has averaged 39 days across New Zealand.
