Regions miss price gains

New Real Estate Institute statistics show the extent to which many regions are lagging behind Auckland and Canterbury’s property price gains.

Monday, July 14th 2014, 12:00AM

by The Landlord

With its latest monthly statistics, the Institute has included data comparing regions’ June 2014 median price to the median price in June 2007.

Auckland’s price has increased 35%, to $600,000, from just over $400,000. Canterbury’s increased by 34%, to just over $400,000 from less than $300,000.

But many of the other regions are reporting very similar median prices to what they experienced in 2007, or price falls. Manawatu/Wanganui, Southland and Northland are all still down on their 2007 medians.
Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Otago and Hawke’s Bay are now only fractionally above.

Institute chief executive Helen O’Sullivan said: ““Over the past seven years the national median price has increased by 23%, however, only Auckland and Canterbury/Westland have seen prices rise by more than the national median at 35% and 34% respectively. Combined, Auckland and Canterbury/Westland represent over half of the New Zealand real estate market and have dominated the increase in the national median price."

She said: “In contrast, a number of regions have either seen very small changes in their median price over the past seven years or falls in the median price. Eight regions, representing over 43% of the New Zealand real estate market, saw their median price increase by less than the change in the Consumer Price Index over the same period.”

In June, there were 5763 sales, down 6.3% on the same time last year and down 12.3% on the month before. The national median price was $427,250 for the month of June, an increase of $33,250 compared to June 2013, but a fall of $2750 from May.

O’Sullivan said: “Volumes continued to trend down in June, as they have done for the past several months. We are starting to see a number of regions record annual falls in the number of sales at around 20%, with only modest increases in those regions where sales numbers are rising. At the same time it is now taking five days longer to sell a property than it did 12 months ago.”

All regions recorded a fall in sales volume compared to May with Otago recording the largest fall of 26.5%, followed by Hawkes Bay with 25.5% and Central Otago Lakes with a fall of 18.3%. Compared to June 2013 all but two regions recorded a fall in sales volume with Otago recording the largest fall of 20.7%, followed by Taranaki with a fall of 19.3% and Central Otago Lakes with a fall of 19.1%.

While the total number of sales was down 6.1% compared to June 2013, the number of sales below $400,000 fell by 17.3%. This follows a fall in sales below $400,000 of 25.0% between May 2013 and May 2014. Seven per cent of sales were properties worth more than $1 million.

Dwellings took one day longer to sell in June compared to May at 39 days.

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