Christchurch's largest real estate agency has reported a sharp drop in the average price of homes it sold in January, compared with a year earlier.
Harcourts, which sells around half of all homes sold in Christchurch, said its average selling price last month was $402,752, a 13% drop on the average selling price of $462,581 in January last year.
The number of homes it sold in Christchurch declined by 3% over the same period, from 266 in January last year to 258 last month.
"The residential property market in Christchurch is a markedly different proposition compared to this time last year, with a higher level of stock, lower house prices and fewer new listings," Harcourts said in its latest MarketWatch report.
Harcourts had 2010 Christchurch homes listed for sale on its books last month, up 25% on the 1608 it had available for sale in January last year.
"The trend we saw at the end of 2014 for an increased level of stock has continued into 2015, with property on hand up 25% compared to last year.
"This, despite new listings being down 14.8%, is an indication that stock is not moving as quickly as it has been," the report said.
"This is further evidenced in the volume of written sales which was down slightly on last year.
"At 258, this is the lowest number of written sales Christchurch has recorded in more than a decade.
"However based on a similar start to last year, we would expect this to rebound strongly next month."
The report said it was too soon to say if the declines in the number of sales and the average selling price were due to the increased supply of houses becoming available or just this year starting with a quieter month after the pressurised market conditions at the end of last year.
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