May was a reasonably buoyant month for the residential property market with median prices and the number of sales both rising strongly compared to April, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
The national median selling price set a new all time high $506,000 in May, up 3% compared to May and up 10% compared to May last year.
It was the first time the national median price has been above $500,000.
And 9075 homes were sold unconditionally in May, up 5.9% compared to April and up 13.6% compared to May last year.
However the increase in median prices was driven by sales in regions south of the Bombays, with Auckland's median price falling from $812,000 in April to $805,000 in May, a decline of 0.9% for the month.
It was the second month in a row that Auckland's median price has fallen since it hit a record high of $820,000 in March, although it was still up 7.5% compared to May last year (see chart below).
Outside of Auckland record median prices were set in Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Wellington, Canterbury/Westland and Central Otago/Lakes.
The number of sales in Auckland was reasonably strong, with 3189 sales in May, up 13.7% compared to April and up a more modest 1.2% compared to May last year.
Within the Auckland region, median prices declined on the North Shore and in the Central Auckland suburbs, Manukau and Papakura/Pukekohe compared to April, while median prices in Rodney and Waitakere went against the trend and were up compared to April.
Very strong price increases continue to be recorded in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.
In Hamilton, May's median price of $480,000 was up 4.8% compared to April and up 29.7% compared to May last year, while Tauranga's median price of $550,250 was up 2.4% compared to April and up 33% compared to May last year.
In the Wellington region the median price in May was $465,000 up 2.2% compared to April and up 14.7% on a year earlier.
In Christchurch the median price in May was $455,000, up 1.1% compared to April and up 7.8% for the year.
Click on the link below for the REINZ's full regional reports for May:
Median price - REINZ
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59 Comments
All good news -
. I bet a dozen Steinies, Auckland property will be up 20% by years end!
What could possibly go wrong?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-13/another-real-estate-market-rip…
Fortunately this is New Zealand and property only ever, ever goes up!
Agreed. But buying property where you can achieve rapid increased equity is just smart investing. If you bought a year ago in Hamilton with 100% LVR you now have a 70%-80% LVR. That's not bad. Keep in mind this side of it is just a bonus with the focus being cashflow and passive income.
Hmmm...election year next year.
All it will take is some clear opposition policy's to cut immigration, stop or restrict offshore property purchase, enforce tax on capital gains, and do away with income tax debt interest offset and the opposition could very easily sail into the Government benches. Even the existing "head in the sand" government is talking about debt to income rations, and waving its hands asking the Ponzi junkies to stop. Imagine the impact of 4.5x income and minimum rations of 20% real cash vs Ponzi inflated fake cash. Property speculators all riding the boon of the current ponzi model don’t vote Left, so what does the opposition have to loose here?
If Labour and the Greens are too dumb, or simply unwilling to compromise their own property portfolios, Winston could easily pitch a subset of this and be the king maker one last time. So keep acting like a mindless debt speculation junkie. Good luck. Im clearing the last of my debt as fast as I can and battening down the hatches and will vote for who ever will stop this madness next year.
I think the property market will be targeted in the coming months by the Govt, I think if they dont "show" like they are doing something about investors buying up all the real estate it is going to hurt them at the elections.
I think they will make drastic changes to prove to the people they are making an effort......I am going to sit back as an investor atm, too volatile for me:) Or they can have another flag episode to keep the sheep looking elsewhere and not on Auckland property.
I like your positively, but I gave up on this mob a couple or years ago actually doing anything meaningful or useful ,
all they can do is blame everybody under the sun and spin like mad whilst tinkering about.
I think you will find many like me (and more by the day) that realize its time for a change, even if only for one term to focus the nats back to actually doing stuff
I think times are a changing..... I own properties, been an investor for many years but even I think that the Govt is selling us out. My kids will not be able to buy in NZ and I think a heap of people are realizing that. My parents who own a heap of real estate and not happy with the current situation. Sibling have all left NZ altogether..... so I think times are a changing. NZ is affordable for the middle class and is starting to affect other classes.
It's laughable that people think it is just going to continue when regional growth is being fuelled by speculation with no connection to real wages. Particularly with the growing uncertainty around the world, Europe etc, not to mention the growing pressure on our government to curb property investment.
Personally I think Britain will vote to stay in as polls so close and leaving would be too dangerous. My point is that prices here are artificially inflated with no relation to actual incomes and that is a house of cards. Many people don't see or feel that & continue to buy up investment property and I find that extraordinary.
Nothing unusual about borrowing at 4% to earn at 7%. Think auckland has done it's dash though and nothing I would touch anymore in Hamilton or tauranga. HB and Palmy will be the next to crack the 20% mark after a decade of nothing it's not surprising to see these markets finally move
My friend is buying a house and house that was $800000 in march is now if not more than a million if not is atleast $900000 so hard to say what data are they talking about. Yesterday was at barfoot auction at manukau with a friend and most houses went on premium - a house that my friend was told will go for $6000000 went for $708000. Is this flatening.
If it happens good but till now govt has done nothing (except last year) and is in denial mode. Time is to put some more measures to control speculation but the will and intention is lacking in gkvt to act.
Though for all hue and cry in the media and all over will be hard for them to ignore and may do something when forced against the wall but will be token gesture only.
Even RBNZ is following govt policy of not doing or delaying though worried but is not doing anything except warning and considering but no action.
Need of the hour is action and no talk or thinking and buts.
That zerohedge article is typical of that website -- they are pessimists on everything. And, the article certainly doesn't even mention the busloads of chinese driving around Auckland looking for realestate. There are tens of millions of rich chinese who would love to move to auckland. Prices are certainly not going down anytime soon.
'Prices not going down' is the call before every bubble bursts. The proof that this is a bubble, and not immigration based, is that rentals have moved very little and are commonly not above those in Wellington. It is difficult to interpret the real estate industry figures as the recent increase in apartments in the CBD will bring down the average. However, any expectation of future increases at the past levels is very naive. The very best we can hope for is a slow decline.
Rents are going up at the moment and in my opinion they will go up FASTER if there is a property crash. Because if people start losing their houses then they will need to start renting instead. Look at what happened in the USA. The crash was good for the landlord investors who were in it for the yield not the speculative gains. Those investors benefited from the crash because it made rents go up and house prices go down, meaning that landlords now had higher incomes and could buy more houses at a huge discount and with much lower mortgage interest rates.
What about the flipside? Those who choose not to buy (saved the difference between rent and mortgage repayments), then step into the market and stop renting?
But any 'investor' who purchased in the last year certainly wasn't in it for the yield as you point out above. And I understand that was almost 50% of buyers in Auckland of late.
I think that many of the people who have the idea of waiting for a crash before they enter the market are always in danger of being left behind. I had a friend who joked about someone he knows still waiting for the market crash from the 1960s because they thought that the house prices were too expensive then. People who bought a house with a positive cash flow have even more money to save for the deposit and to enter the market when it "crashes". Properties have been doubling every 12 or so years historically on average. they are close to being 90-100% in Auckland since the last peak of 2007-8 (or is it only 80%? according to official stats?). They might overshoot the mark this time because of the strong fundamentals and then eventually correct themselves. It might go up 120% and then crash 20-50%. As you said, there are people sitting on the fence waiting to enter the market, so as soon as property prices start going down, those people might start entering the market finally, thus preventing the correction from actually correcting as far down as it otherwise would have. That's just a theory, but hey, time will tell.
Landlords with a positive rental yield , increasing rents and decreasing mortgage interest rates have their "wages" going up heaps! Also, look at China, their income to house price ratios are something crazy like 1:30, that dwarfs the 1:9 in Auckland or the 1:5 in the provinces, etc. I am not saying it's right, I am just pointing out that if we look at China then we see that it's not impossible for the bubble to keep inflating regardless of people's incomes. In fact, if we introduce the limits on "income to price" ratios that will be even worse and more unfair for the average NZer because that will mean that only the rich people can now buy property and many of those rich people got rich from the real estate in the first place! talk about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer!
Hey Mystery - you sound like the type of guy/girl who would tell someone to buy stocks in 1929, 1987, 2000 or 2008 for the fear of missing out....
There are times to buy and there are times to sit on the side-lines....
And you seem to be forgetting the influence of increasing interest rates following a purchase at the peak of a cycle which would significantly harm your investment over the long run. I'd much rather buy a property when it's relatively cheap with higher interest rates, than a largely overvalued property in a period of lower interest rates - as history would suggest both values eventually regress to means....And who would want to pay a lot of debt over 30years at a higher interest rate than when they purchased?
;-) Ok, I will say this as a joke. Clearly, a great deal of this economic stuff is a 'mystery' to you.
Problem is Mystery, A great deal of this economic stuff is NOT a joke for many who are living week to week, trying to start a family or get rid of the student debt...etc etc.
It's very real. The needs are very real. People need homes and not just a place to live so someone else can line THEIR pockets at their expense, particularly the hope of having a home of their own.
Justice has now spoken.;-)
Quite right, cheap house prices are great for investors. Makes it very confusing when you see landlords crowing about their favourite investment class getting more expensive. I've even fallen for it myself when I cheer share prices rising, which is completely illogical as I'm a net buyer not a net seller. Most expensive assets only benefits those who are selling.
There really is a lack of logic to this remark. People can't put up rentals because the 'choose' to, else they would have done that already. And that is reflected in the second part of your comment - that prices dropped and people could buy at a return that was appropriate for the investment, despite no change in rentals.
The original commentary that initiated the discussion was a real estate boss upset about talk of a crash. If the numbers are fundamentally solid why is he concerned about talk about a crash? My concerns with the current situation is the commentary that serial speculators have been replaced by 'ma and pa' investors in the Auckland market, who I have more sympathy for.
The data is far away from realityas in Auckland in last3 to 4 months prices have gone up by 15 to 25%. Or may be just to put the heat off the national party as do not wantto do anything to curb speculation.
So beware may be the data is to suit JK.
Chevk with anyone in property market and will vouch that the price rise from feb to now is anywhere between 15 to 25% in Auckland.
Yee hii pardners !! ...I just dropped en from those hills way o'er yonder ..yee hii !
Now folks ....don't let da "facts" get in da way of a good storee .....
Lil' ol' Aaawklaand ....as per the abuv graph lil' doggies ...March 2016 $820,000 ..... April 2016 $812,000.....May 2016 $805,000 ...now li' doggies call me krazee or what !! ....if those little numbers haven't got a little "pattern" to dem and you lil' property "speculata's" out dere thinks dats great ??? ....I'll eat my 10 gallon hat .....that's why they cawl me "Craazee Hoss" ....Yee Hii !!
Gonna be interesting from dem hills o'er yonder, watching how this all "pans out" ....."fools gold" comes ta mind !! ....yee hiii lil' doggies ! ....be seein' ya !
Rubbish data to suit national and anither reason not to take any action. Auckland housing prices have been on fire in last 3 months much higher than before anytime. Minimum jump even in units is from $75000 and in house from 1500000 ONWARDS. Can check with any real estate agent. All this data is to divert attention from Auckland as the situation has become too hot for the national to handle infact they themselves have said that their is nothing much that govt can do and NOW has thrown the blame to RBNZ to act and before was Council. Everyone buy they themself who were elected to govern. Next time should not even come to people if cannot face a situation that too which is their own creation and o e can sèe so many option but them.
Rubbish data to suit national and anither reason not to take any action. Auckland housing prices have been on fire in last 3 months much higher than before anytime. Minimum jump even in units is from $75000 and in house from 1500000 ONWARDS. Can check with any real estate agent. All this data is to divert attention from Auckland as the situation has become too hot for the national to handle infact they themselves have said that their is nothing much that govt can do and NOW has thrown the blame to RBNZ to act and before was Council. Everyone but they themself who were elected to govern. Next time should not even come to people for vote if cannot face a situation that too which is their own creation and o e can sèe so many option but them. Real shame to be in time when national is in govt.
Perhaps we are coming into the winter months for a traditional slow down. Boom started in AKL and is spreading, are we seeing a slow in AKL and will eventually move out further in a year or so...Maybe!??. One thing remains true we are still only building half the houses needed to meet demand. Each month we do not fill the quota it adds to the backlog and we are getting behind even further. Keep predicting a bust and a slow down...it will eventually come, many have predicted for years now and we are still moving upwards. Why? simply we do not have enough housing to support the need and we are getting further behind. It only takes 2 cashed up willing buyers in an auction to drive the price up although the vast majority can't afford. You would however be foolish to think this will last forever, as property, like commodities and markets moves in cycles. Predict the worst and it will eventually happen, when....who knows, but I still see growth to come until the Supply/Demand issue is seriously addressed!!
Why? simply we do not have enough housing to support the need and we are getting further behind.
The problem for Auckland is that the provinces have significantly higher rates of building per capita than Auckland. Over time this suggests that the pre-existing demand in Auckland will be diffused by construction in Tauranga/Hamilton. As those cities become progressively bigger, quicker they begin to rival Auckland as the attractive place to do business.
Longterm unless Auckland increases its rate of construction it will be reduced in stature and value.
Supply is important and prices do move up but what we are seing now is speculation as the pace which it is growing does not justify NZ ecenomy.
It may stabilise but for that it is important for govt to put measures to curb specualtion and more so from offshore money but govt is in denial and if it continues the way it is - bound ro crash heavily that is more likely possibilty.
One may not get drown in 5 feet of water and then every inch is dangerous. Now we are in dangerous teritory and if yhe national party has wisdom shoild act now as runinh awah ftom reality will not make yhe ptoblem go away but will come bavk wiyh more force.
Sorry but current national party government is not helpjng NZ nor themself ad should face the situation. People want their leaders to aCT and not to pass the blame and responsinilty to council,RBNZ.
ONLY IF PROBLEMS COULD GO AWAY BY DENIAL. WHAT A WORLD IT WOULD HAVE BÈEN. IT IS FOOLS PARADISE
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