Record asking price reached

A new record asking price was reached across the country in January.

Thursday, February 12th 2015, 12:00AM

by The Landlord

Realestate.co.nz reported an average asking price in Auckland in the month of $750,023, up 2.4% from the city’s previous record of $732,240, set last June.

The national average asking price also hit a new high, of $489,471.

The January average asking prices in Wellington and Canterbury were $463,214 and $446,919 respectively, slightly below records set during 2014.

The number of new listings coming on to the market also increased slightly.

There were almost 3% more new listings in January than in the same month in 2014 and 15% more than in December.

Of the main centres, Canterbury experienced the biggest increase year-on-year in new listings with 1,288, an increase of 19% on the same month last year.

Realestate.co.nz chief executive Brendon Skipper said January was a particularly active start to the year. “This bodes well for the first quarter, as February and March are usually some of the busiest months of the year for new listings.”

January also saw year-on-year growth in email enquiries from prospective buyers to Realestate.co.nz, up 188% on the same month in 2014.

Despite the increase in new listings, overall inventory of all available housing stock for sale in New Zealand fell in January to its lowest level since April 2007.

The long-term national average is 36 weeks, however in January inventory fell to 21.4 weeks of stock. In Auckland, where the long-term average is 26 weeks, inventory fell to just 9.4 weeks, the lowest recorded for the region since Realestate.co.nz first started compiling statistics more than eight years ago.

“There appears to be no let up in the seemingly unstoppable climb in average asking price of home sellers, not just in Auckland, but across the country. Coupled with the fall in inventory, the current property market is one of the most favourable for sellers for some time,” said Skipper.

« Listings not keeping pace with demand: O'Sullivan

Inventory down except in Canterbury, Harcourts says »

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