By David Hargreaves
Auckland's biggest real estate firm Barfoot & Thompson is reporting that the Auckland market could be plateauing, after witnessing a sharp fall in average price achieved during July.
"There has been a definite change in the market in the last month," chief executive Wendy Alexander said.
The results for Barfoots contrast markedly with the figures released just yesterday by QV.
However, the Barfoots data would be seen as more up to date information, as the QV figures are viewed as having a greater time lag.
The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand figures for July, likely to be released next week, will give the most timely information on the current market. But it is worth noting that Barfoots sales normally make up about 40% of Auckland's total.
Alexander said the average price in July was $867,681, which was a fall of 4.5% on that for June, "but more significantly 2% below the average price for the previous three months".
The median price, however, held up better and at $840,000 was pretty much unchanged from June, and 2.1% higher than the median price for the previous three months.
In July, Barfoot & Thompson sold 1034 properties, which was down 11.5% on the number in June and down some 25.5% on those for the same month last year.
However, new listings were also a lot lower. At 1426 these were down 19.4% on those in June and down 19.6% for those in July last year.
At month end the firm had 3012 properties on its books, which was 2.6% higher than in June and 7.5% higher than in July last year.
During July the company sold 383 properties, or 37% of all sales, for more than $1 million. It sold 94 properties, or 9.1% of sales, for under $500,000.
The 'under $500,000' category was rather more active in the past month. In June such sales accounted for less than 6% of Barfoots' sales, while in the previous month the 'over one million' category accounted for 38%.
'A shifting tide'
ASB economist Kim Mundy said the new figures and comparisons with a year ago should be treated with some caution as July 2015 was an incredibly strong month, as both buyers and sellers leapt into the market ahead of the RBNZ LVR lending restrictions and the Government’s tax changes.
"Despite this, the data could indicate a shifting tide where both buyers and sellers are beginning to act more cautiously. For buyers in particular, price resistance may be slowing sales," she said.
July was the third month in a row that total inventory levels in Auckland rose "and this suggests that demand is not as strong as it has been previously", Mundy said.
"We have been warning for some time now that price resistance will begin to impact on activity, and we could be seeing the start of this." ASB's Mundy said the next few months will be an interesting time in the Auckland, and wider, housing market.
"With the impending additional investor LVR restrictions due in September, we will be watching to see whether activity picks up again ahead of this. On the whole though, listings remain low, population growth remains strong and interest rates are near or at historical lows. Auckland building activity is also some time from matching population growth. All of the above factors will keep a floor under Auckland house prices."
'Buyer determination tempered'
Barfoots' Alexander said that the winter months, school holidays and a slowing in the number of new listings all contributed to the slow-down in July, "but buyer determination to pay whatever is necessary to achieve a property was tempered".
"Buyers remain prepared to pay a fair price, and under the hammer sales at auctions of 70% were still high, but sales activity is slower than it was at the same time last year."
Alexander said that in the three months from May to July this year, Barfoots sold 3508 properties, which is 7.8% fewer than in the same period a year ago, when 3780 were sold.
"The year-on year increase in prices is still occurring, but at a much slower rate than we have seen in the past four years," Alexander said.
"The average price has increased by 5.3% over the past seven months compared with 2015’s full year average price increase of 14%. The median price increase over the past seven months has been 6% compared with 17.4% for 2015."
'Unclear what prices will do'
Alexander said it was "unclear" whether prices would continue in the remaining months of the year.
"Normally, prices rise as we enter the spring/summer months, but the Reserve Bank’s new regulations affecting investors will start to have an impact from August on."
ASB's Mundy said the next few months will be an interesting time in the Auckland, and wider, housing market.
"With the impending additional investor LVR restrictions due in September, we will be watching to see whether activity picks up again ahead of this. On the whole though, listings remain low, population growth remains strong and interest rates are near or at historical lows. Auckland building activity is also some time from matching population growth. All of the above factors will keep a floor under Auckland house prices."
Barfoot Auckland
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95 Comments
Strange headline - the average has dropped but the more commonly quoted median hasn't, and the "The median price increase over the past seven months has been 6% compared to 17.4% for 2015" equates to a 10.3% annual rate of increase over the past 7 months, hardly a plateau.
Makes me wonder what their motivation is (they are a real estate agency so always have a commercial motivation) - perhaps convincing rbnz/govt the market is successfully "self regulating"?
So will my wellington apartment now go up in value until it's net 3% yield? (Would have to double in price as netting a tidy 7% at present!)... and as for my more recent Palmy portfolio netting 6-7% currently, are prices to double there also until yields drop to similar levels?
Global search for yield simply found auckland first... now spreading... all predictable as 10 year rates globally are extremely low.
Just consider preservation of principle by making sure you buy in cities that are actually growing in population. So NOT wanganui (that caught many ppl last time) NOT gisborne... and for mine NOT Rotorua , it simply doesn't have the demographics or predicted population growth for me, not when you can buy at same levels in a much bigger much more diversified city such as Palmy.
Comparative sales down 25.5 percent . But what about the immigration demand. There is no such thing as a plateau in real estate. We marched them up to the top of the hill, there will be no soft landing as the lemmings drop.. Will the RBNZ cut deep to save the Auckland housing market
Ok, so these figures show that Auckland average price has grown almost 100% in the last 10 years , so nothing is out of normal in that exactly what happens almost every decade since 1976 as per the QV curve .... If History examples were to be followed, then the cycle is almost at its peak and we should start seeing a slow down and/or a small decline with the beginning of the next cycle anytime from 12 - 18 months ...
So all in all , nothing exceptional is happening in the housing values.
However affordability is another story !
BTW, neither the above curve nor the QV one show that there has been any severe crash landing in housing prices for the last 50 years ... even in 2008 the softening was very smooth ...food for thought!
House prices have indeed (more or less) doubled every 10 years in Auckland. Surely at these levels affordability is no longer "another story" though? Do you think they are really likely to double again by 2026? Although I'm continually amazed by this market, so I don't doubt that it isn't beyond what is possible, I simply don't understand how this could happen.
While it seems reasonable that house price inflation must be linked to wage inflation, the evidence of the last 7 years where there has been very low wage inflation but high house price inflation seems to point to a disconnect. Perhaps the market is being funded by other factors than wage inflation?
Absolutely won't double in the next ten years. The great myth is sustained because during the 70'80'90's we have very high inflation rates which dragged up house prices. In fact real house prices dropped in the 90's. Real estate agents quote this 'doubling every ten years' mantra to promote sales but it is nonsense. The reality is that Auckland has vastly outstretched the fundamentals of house prices - that at the current prices teachers can't afford to work in Auckland and so imagine how that is impacting the manufacturing and service industry jobs at the minimum wage.
2 Teachers on 70K each, with 2 kids and a 20K p.a. au pair can easily afford to buy. Affordability is the key fundamental and id say a drop in the interbank rate from 2% to 0% would do wonders for affordability. Is it technically possible for property to double, yes, probably their is one more doubling left if the reserve bank choose to go full Japan.
That is far from easy to afford. You also picked an income scenario that has the best tax implications. Try 1 100k income and a $40k income and see how much difference it makes (-$1900 year). If you take your example and assume they have a $750k mortgage at 4% over 30 years then their repayments would be $3580 a month. About 1/2 of their take home pay after child minding costs. The ANZ calculator says the most they could borrow is $660k. I'm not saying they couldn't do it, I'm saying it wouldn't be easy. For house prices to double you would basically end up with nothing below $1m in Auckland and nothing suitable for a family of 4 for under about $1.3. If they had managed to save $200k and there was no interest on a mortgage it would cost $3055 a month to pay it over 30years. At 2% it would cost $4065 and at 3% it would cost $4637. Once you start borrowing sums that large at rates that low, there is no way out. Auckland is expensive now (some would say unaffordable) but people are still able to buy. Without significant income increases, it can't go much further as rental yields will drop and rents won't be able to keep up. Interest rate cuts won't change much more as you aren't going to see rates below 3% regardless of what the OCR does.
True. Got the blinkers on for my own situation. We want to buy something a bit bigger in Pukekohe. Quite a few new listings, but mostly sections that haven't got titles yet and house and land packages that are over a year away from completion. Nothing much that we can take possession of in a few months.
Meanwhile in Vancouver where house prices were sky-rocketing, something happened after the 15% tax on foreigners.
Funny that our politicians couldn't work that out.
Metro Vancouver home sales dropped 75% after foreign buyer tax announced: realtor
http://globalnews.ca/news/2861138/metro-vancouver-home-sales-dropped-by…
I think you'll find the problem is that they could work that out...
When are we actually going to admit that for politicians and as a society (or at least for the parts that vote) higher and higher house prices are not a "problem" - in fact obviously we believe quite the opposite.
Link below would also be useful in NZ to Foreign Buyers which would receive a 15% tax on property like Vancover to make house prices affordable.
Do you think 15% of tax will do any difference? I talked to a local property trader (some people call them speculators) who pays 28%(or 33%) of tax on his profit after on-selling properties. 28% did not stop them. So 15% also wont stop foreigners in long term. Only a ban on all foreigners would stop foreign purchases.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the tax payable up front like stamp duty? A $1,000,000 purchase price would have an additional $150,000 tax bill on settlement, if you are a non-resident (in Vancouver). The instant erosion of capital is a major negative IMO. But a 20% rise in the property market in 12 months would give you your money back after selling expenses etc, if you still believed in the ponzi.
In addition I suspect most house flippers are not paying any tax, aiming to be well clear of NZ by the time IRD come knocking for their share, after failing the bright-line test.
Property traders are not subject to bright line test as their intention of any purchase is on-selling. If they on-sell the property even after 2 years they still have to pay tax because of their intention is tested. The person I talked to belong to a large "property" mentoring group (heavily advertised). He says all of their members have got GST registered companies for property trading and pay tax plus GST on the profit as they claim and return GST as well
Properties make 128k on average. Those flipped in a year. 28% tax is about 35k.
Stamp duty 15% on auckland average house would be 150k. 5 times the capital gains tax. Yes it would work.first home buyers and owner occupiers would be buying for 150k less. Even if the investors still wanted to buy that would be great as the tax collected would help pay for infrastructure. At the moment nz has the lowest purchase tax in the world. No wonder 32% resident buyers are foreign students and temp workers. Cheapest property purchase tax in the world . Zero%
I was amused this week when a young lady cold called from a real estate company to ask if we were interested in selling our house, and whether we therefore would like to be on their email list. (we, presumably like most households in Auckland, receive real estate marketing stuff at least weekly, despite having not encouraged any of them). I stated that no we were not interested thanks very much. She was clearly somewhat shocked, and asked how that could be; did we not think prices were high enough? My answer, which did not seem to have occurred to her as a possibility, was that no it was not that at all, but that we needed a house to live in, and our current one suited us for our current needs for the foreseeable future. We had no reason to consider selling, and best not to waste their or our time.
Did you not realise she would of helped you find another one? Clearly she just wanted to help you find a better house. Nothing to do with the commission at all.
I had a similar call a while ago and I told them that we didn't see any point selling as we would have to buy again. His response was "don't worry about that, I'll sell you another one. It's a win-win for the agent". Actually it was a lose-lose for the agent as I will never buy or sell a house that he is involved with.
:). Funny how people talk incessantly about the performance of the property market when the NZX has had an equal performance over the past few years. People forget there is a correlation with different asset classes and it affects where investors choose to deploy their capital.
Most share investors do not buy $500k of shares with a loan of $499K , as do many ppty 'investors' leveraging off the family home.
The ones that did got cleaned out in the last sharemarket crash. Many property freaks have not yet twigged that the once you turn the housing market into an investment product, it wil behave like one. Invest what you can afford to loose applies.
Yep. One of my favourite things about shares is that it's invisible. Can stealth along building a balanced, diversified portfolio and taking the dividends and building the net worth, but nobody's any the wiser, nobody asks, and you don't have to have boring conversations about it at BBQs. Of course, for a lot of people, being able to brag about their three-beddy staties in Palmy is part of the appeal.
C68.
But you can touch and feel the reality of that renter. You can touch its worn and peeling paint, see the mouldy bathroom walls and walk on its cracked concrete path.
You cannot do all these things with shares.
You can also see your 20% deposit treble or even disappear into a swamp of negative equity.
Meanwhile you could miss out on the investment world elsewhere safe in the knowledge that your 'bricks and mortar' are right there for you to worship.
Oh the irony...
Maybe try only putting into house speculating what you can afford to lose. The stock market is no more volatile, and in fact if you know a thing or two about the companies you invest in and have some basic knowledge of financial ratios, its less risky in my opinion.
3% excludes foreign Students and Temp Workers
LINZ and the Government plus the Media are unable to grasp that these two groups are also foreign buyers. They account for 32% of the Resident buyers from the latest LINZ report.
Australia and Canada say foreign includes everyone that is not a CITIZEN or PERMANENT resident.
Don't forget the weather factor. Last winter was a mild one when compared to this winter. Hard to go house shopping when it is wet and cold. Shouldn't we discount this factor in the calculations, but then again they may just be trying to convince the authorities self-regulation is at work and they need not intervene.
I've always maintained the middle of winter is the best time to go house hunting (given the choices can be a bit fewer), but if you can find a place that you like even in the worst weather and it still feels warm and dry and shows no sign of otherwise, then it's probably a good buy.
interesting zerohedge article about the Sydney housing bubble and how Australian banks are tightening up on lending to Chinese speculators. I suppose the same think would be going on here in Auckland.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-02/d-day-australias-real-estate-b…
I've been following the Operation Fox Hunt asset seizure reporting out of Canada and Australia over the past few years. Bit of dithering over sending people back to a regime that'll execute them, but really, with the power we've handed them over trade, what choice will there be? Our fox trap is yet to be sprung, but now that China are ramping up the pressure, how long before the government roll over and give up the Fox Hunt targets? China's got them over a barrel.
excellent stamp duty 15% in Vancouver Canada ... well done
Note David Chaston
"Foreign nationals are transferees who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents"
So if the same applied in NZ foreign Students and Temp Visa workers (who make up 32%+ of Resident buyers possibly more if you include companies and trusts) would pay the stamp duty.
THIS IS EXACTLY THE MEDICINE AUCKLAND/NZ NEEDS.
http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/taxes/property-taxes/property-transfer…
Per the link:
Effective August 2, 2016, an additional property transfer tax applies to residential property transfers to foreign entities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District.
Foreign Entities
Foreign entities are transferees that are foreign nationals, foreign corporations or
taxable trustees.
Foreign nationals are transferees who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents,
including stateless persons.
Additional Property Transfer Tax on Residential Property Transfers to Foreign Entities Page 2 of 4
Foreign corporations are transferees that are corporations:
• not incorporated in Canada or
• incorporated in Canada, but controlled in whole or in part by a foreign national or
other foreign corporation, unless the shares of the corporation are listed on a
Canadian stock exchange
Taxable trustees are trustees that are a foreign national or foreign corporation, or a
beneficiary of a trust that is a foreign national or foreign corporation.
This is also excellent. Seems the Canadians know what they are doing. Just copy and paste and apply to NZ.
Also in terms of penalties for avoidance no slap on the wrist like in nz :
"Where transactions involve Canadian citizens and permanent residents their identity
must be verified using official government issued identification
Failure to pay the additional tax as required or purposely completing the general or
additional property transfer tax return with incorrect or misleading information may
result in a penalty of the unpaid tax plus interest and a fine of $200,000 for corporations
or $100,000 for individuals and/or up to two years in prison. The penalties apply to
anyone who participates in tax avoidance.
Paying the Additional Tax
The additional tax must be paid with the general property transfer tax at the time the
property transfer is registered with the Land Title Office."
This market won't handle a "plateau" for an extended period of time - interesting to hear a B&T even suggest this will be good for this business without causing panic.
The high proportion of new investors who have bought in the last few years need steady capital gains to justify their decision to be holding Auckland property when the yields are this low. (sure - there are exceptions for all you ultra good looking property bulls on here, I'm sure)
This AKL real estate bubble is 'beast' which must keep growing for the sake of all those ultra savvy property investors and poor FHB's who bought in recently. Feed the beast, or slowly starve it, are there any other options?
I disagree, its not inertia, laziness, stupidity (well perhaps a bit, maybe a lot if you take a long term view).
The government is not doing anything as the status quo is generating an artificial positive GDP growth and keeping the oldies happy with their rising house values. Long term view ?? - a forex dealer considers the weekend a long time and will often close out positions late on Friday and this guy only has his eyes on the next election, the future can go to hell in a tradies handbasket and he will be off to greener and unpolluted pastures.
The poor old RBNZ has been left carrying the can and frankly they are trying to push manure up hill with a pointy stick.
As for GDP/capita that looks pretty sick!
Call it what you will but inertia is an all embracing cover for all things that just do not get done. Incompetence and short-term-ism, I agree.
What about that flag then?
It only became the one that prevailed at the time because of the flawed preferential system that allowed the first choice to be set aside. Aye,DC?
Their policies are working:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-03/deals-are-collapsing-vancouver…
Their policies are working:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-03/deals-are-collapsing-vancouver…
That's excellent news, and it's good to see that their new tax in BC Canada is finally taking hold. Funnily enough I was just reading an Bloomberg article yesterday that very much outlines the structure of their Vancouver housing market:
Bloomberg article: Five scenes from Vancouver as it transforms into a playground for the rich.
http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-vancouver-real-estate-market/
This also describes the demographics of what is influencing and shapes their property market, so it's not just the super rich but also "astronaut families" which is a fantastic term, describing the why a family will deposit themselves in a city such as Vancouver and the main bread winner will work and pay their taxes in another country. Which of course means that the host country will misses out on that revenue but I guess some would argue that they have the benefit of having their property prices massively inflated. But we all know that's more of a curse than a blessing.
Also glad to see that they are applying harsh fines as reported by Joe Public's earlier comment. Perhaps that's the real reason why their new tax is taking effect. Australia on the other hand appears to be still having inflated property prices according to this article: http://www.domain.com.au/news/property-prices-surge-over-july-leaving-r…
Australia applied a limp wrist stamp duty of 4% on foreign buyers....Little wonder it isn't working
BC Canada hit them with 15% which I believe is exactly the level which would make a difference
Looking forward to the first political party that announce a stamp duty on foreign buyers (all foreigners ie includes students and temp visa) and local investors at the 15% level
They will have my vote
What can we do?
... we can email our MP's asking them to bring in this 15% stamp duty. More people that ask the more likely we will get it.
Its not growth, it's just asset price inflation. Besides, I think Nationals actually quite annoyed that the provinces are inflating away. I think the plan actually is to create a nation of precariats (precarious proletarians) who lack job security and the means to pay a mortgage. John Key of course calls this a "flexible workforce" and makes it out to be a lifestyle choice.
More and more it feels like people are getting corralled into renting for life. Perhaps the right wingers think that a nation of precariats will be good for the economy because they'll spend everything they have. Perhaps thats' what Janet Yellen really means by "escape velocity". If they can just lower interest rates enough so that everyone is relatively poor, then people will give up on that pesky dream of owning a home and spend everything they have into the economy like they do in Germany - Yes that would be a perfect society, Germany but without the fair taxation system, social services and rock bottom food prices.
Short term trader mindset ... next election and that's all
We have a ex trader as a pm. Little wonder why his policies are set to meet short term goals with little regard for long term consequences. Gdp focussed yet completely ignores gdp per capita so we have the 4th highest immigration rate in the world. Long term consequences are the cost to taxpayers in many ways.... infrastructure spend required, traffic, housing, quality of life...
House prices highest in the world relative to incomes..... short term goal next election... long term consequences....... numerous
Vancouver moves to tax empty homes in overheated property market...... I wonder how many of the 33,000 homes in NZ on the census day are vacant homes.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/19/vancouver-moves-to-tax-empty-homes-in-ov…
Hexun was a little more blunt, stating the Government of Canada “must introduce policies to cool the property market, or face collapse”. Further adding that “this crisis threatens the stability of [the Canadian] financial system.”
https://betterdwelling.com/city/vancouver/chinese-media-now-warning-can…
Yes there seems to be quite a few mixed messages being advertised to foreign investors at the moment regarding NZ's property market
Article from Hou garden: If LVR Deal unified planning and Oakland can not solve the housing crisis, then how to do? ... http://www.hougarden.com/news-14352-1.html
And not much sentiment about why the new Canadian tax has been introduced. Plus quite an odd title to this recent article from Hou garden (Can't blame Google translate for that one): -
Canada, "Chinese province" taxing the foreign property buyers
http://www.hougarden.com/news-14337-1.html
Though apparently properties in Aucklands, Orakei basin are still considered to be quite cheap "the price is only 1.52 million New Zealand dollars".
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