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Market tightening for summer as new listings decline on Realestate.co.nz, although apartment listings surge

Property
Market tightening for summer as new listings decline on Realestate.co.nz, although apartment listings surge

The supply of homes available for sale appears to be tightening with the number of homes newly listed for sale on Realestate.co.nz dropping on both a monthly and annual basis in November.

There were 12,762 homes newly listed for sale on the specialist property website in November, down 4.8% compared to October and down 5.6% compared to November last year.

The decline was mainly caused by decline in the number of houses that were newly listed for sale in November, which declined 6.3% compared to October and were down 7.2% compared to November last year.

That was partially offset by a big increase in the number of apartments that were newly listed for sale in November, which were up 16.1% compared to October and up 14% compared to November last year.

The trend for lifestyle properties was flat, with the number newly listed for sale in November barely changed from October and from November last year.

The big increase in apartment listings occurred mostly in Auckland which dominates the apartment market, and where 558 apartments were newly listed for sale in November compared with 459 in October and 429 in November last year.

However that was more than matched by a fall in the number of Auckland houses newly listed for sale on the website, which dropped from 3673 in October to 3307 in November, suggesting the supply of homes listed for sale could be starting to tighten as the market heads into the summer selling season.

The trend for new listings was largely flat in Canterbury and the Waikato, the country's second and third largest real estate markets respectively, while new listings declined for the second month in a row in the Bay of Plenty.

Wellington went against the trend and posted a strong increase in new listings for the third month in a row, with 1018 homes newly listed for sale in November compared with 938 in October.

Realestate.co.nz chief executive Brendon Skipper said the number of homes newly listed for sale last month was the lowest for any November month since November 2009.

'This may further exacerbate the shortage of inventory, which still hovers near near the all-time low of 16.1 weeks we reached last month," he said.

Inventory is a measure of the national supply of homes for sale, expressed as the number of weeks it would take to sell all of the currently listed properties at the average rate of sale (see chart below).

Housing inventory

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10 Comments

I would argue the drop in listings is mostly driven by the drop in sales - less people buying houses if they can't sell their own (or at least can't sell for the price they want). This would represent no net change in supply, as the drop in supply will be also met by a drop in demand.

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or as has happened in every other down turn, people realising they will not get what they wish for their property so not selling and waiting for the next upturn

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Perhaps their investments in Dick Smith were a factor.

Or possibly the hedge and pension funds that are taking a large cut.

Or possibly they may wait for the Councils to take heed, instead of taking their cut.

Or even waiting to see if USA lifts itself from the doldrums interest wise.

Or waiting for their derivatives to bear fruit.

Or maybe Father Christmas will bring them the cash that they sorely need to pay off the maxed out credit card, the maxed out mortgage leverage, or the maxed out liquidation of the milk factor for penniless farmers. Or even bring joy to those Dick Smith Aussie blokes.

It is a crazy world, borrow sum, owe sum,.win some, lose some,

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although the market is slowing down there is not much to choose from.
If you would like to buy something to live in - you would struggle.

SO , you sell and what you will buy? so better not to sell....

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although the market is slowing down there is not much to choose from.
If you would like to buy something to live in - you would struggle.

SO , you sell and what you will buy? so better not to sell....

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.....when the market was 'normal', one would view a home, put in an offer conditional on sale of own home, if accepted then sell in the xx weeks given. I wouldn't mind relocating at present, however as the market is largely overpriced rubbish - forget it. It is a very difficult market to move in - so for me I'm staying put, which maybe what is others have decided?

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Is the Coromandel change significant?
People ditching the holiday home to try and meet costs on the AKL property perhaps?
Remember its coming up to the silly season for holiday homes so to see a 60% increase now is surprising.

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Is this farmers trying to offload property and pay down farm debt? They have traditionally been big property owners in the coromandel. Interested in comments here. Or is this a typo?

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No mucking around

If you thought AU was being tough on deportation of kiwi felons - check this out
http://www.domain.com.au/news/are-you-a-foreign-property-investor-in-au…

Look at the amount of the fines and restrictions imposed on foreign investors and temporary residents (ie international students) as from today 1 December 2015 - fines up to $675,000 or 3 years in jail - which will result in instant deportation

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Hmm we may see an artificial slowing of house prices as more apartments are sold and less actual houses. The average sale price data lumps these two together and an apartment on average sells for a lot less than a house.

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