On a seasonally adjusted basis the asking price rose 2% in the month indicating a continued confidence amongst sellers, says the report. It also says that the trend of the past two years shows continued strength in asking price expectation.
The national asking price rising to a new peak at $429,249 was mirrored across the country with significant growth in all but two regions. The highest rising region was Otago which with a 12.5% increase to $298,817 reached a new peak.
The Auckland market at $555,572 whilst not quite hitting the peak, continues to track at all time highs close to the peak set in December 2010 at $564,853. The April asking price was up 5% on April last year and showed a 1% seasonally adjusted rise from March.
Those regions that showed falls, Bay of Plenty with a 3% fall and the Central North Island with a 7% fall, both had seen strong asking prices through the latter part of 2010 and into early 2011.
However, the stock of unsold houses nudged higher in April as the slow start to the year in sales volumes had an impact on stock clearance rates. Total inventory now stands at over 53 weeks, some of the highest levels ever recorded, the report also reveals.
The Auckland market was the only region to show a significant fall in inventory. At the same time the asking price for Auckland property rose again to its recent peak levels.
Overall new listings fell by 7% on a seasonally adjusted basis between March and April with just 10,181 new properties put on the market.
But the report is upbeat. ‘The NZ Property market certainly is showing signs of renewed activity, far from the levels of the mid 2000’s the current activity is measured and very much centered on the Auckland region. Whilst in overall terms the level of inventory weighs heavy on all regions the levels of sales reported in March show that buyers are certainly back in the market and beginning to clear some of this high inventory,’ it says.
It also points out that the nature of the way inventory is reported, that is actual stock divided by three month average sales, the very low levels of sales in January and February is in some way holding back the reporting of this trend of greater activity. ‘It is likely that with the reporting of the April sales that the next inventory report for May will show a significant fall in inventory levels of unsold houses,’ it adds.
‘The market amongst sellers is certainly not showing any impact of inventory levels, as a function of such seller confidence the national truncated mean asking price has risen in April to a new record high of recorded stats going back to the start of 2007.’
It also says that as a further lead indicator to the market, the levels of new listings continue to track well below the previous year. ‘In fact we have seen 10 consecutive months of falls in listings numbers year on year,’ it says.
In the main metro areas listings are low and were down 32% in Canterbury due to the impact of the earthquake. Wellington was also weak with just 741 new listings, down 29% and Auckland down 17% with 3,325 new listings.
Two regions did, however, see very strong growth in listings, particularly the Queenstown Lakes area which saw a raft of new listings including a large collection of apartments.
The report concludes that the Auckland market is very much on the boundary of moving from a buyer’s market to one favouring sellers. The Auckland market has seen a reduction of properties on the market from around 14,100 just before Christmas to currently 12,376.
