Auckland's housing market may be starting to ease slightly, according to the latest figures from property website Realestate.co.nz.
"Auckland is the only region in the whole of New Zealand where housing stock is up compared to last year," Realestate.co.nz CEO Brendon Skipper said.
Demand in Auckland appeared to be easing and new higher loan-to-valuation mortgage restrictions being introduced for investors where possibly the cause, he said.
The number of Auckland homes newly listed on Realestate.co.nz in August was down by 12.4% compared to August last year, however the total number of Auckland homes available for sale on the website was up by 4% compared to a year earlier.
"This tells us that homes are taking slightly longer to sell, which could be a result of LVR restrictions," Skipper said.
However it's a different story around the rest of the country, with the market remaining buoyant outside of Auckland.
"With the exception of Auckland, there has been a gradual decline in housing stock over and above the typical midwinter seasonal lull," Realestate.co.nz's August report said.
And asking prices remain buoyant, even in Auckland, where the average asking price of properties advertised on the website hit a new record of $907,986 in August.
Record high asking prices were also set in Coromandel at $636,297, Waikato $482,623, Bay of Plenty $534,971, Nelson $543,401 and Canterbury $484,023 (see chart below).
ASB economist Kim Mundy said the data suggested that sales activity had fallen in August and inventory levels lifted despite a fall in new listings, and that recent hotspots outside of Auckland also appeared to be cooling.
"We expect sales activity to continue to cool over the coming months as the RBNZ's new investor LVR restrictions come into effect," she said.
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67 Comments
I dearly wish my skepticism was just blind or wishful thinking.
but it's easy to be skeptical about headlines proclaiming the "easing" of the Auckland property market when the underlying causes for the current price levels are not only worse than they were five years ago but there is also no plan in place to alleviate them.
Yep agents are moaning about decline in buyers as no investor interest. Everyone likes to blame immigrants but the majority of those put pressure on the rental market. It's them pesky domestic investors that been a huge contributing factor to this overblown market.
He said the auction rooms are quiet, made racist remarks about Chinese people being smarter than white/other people and then said that anybody not using this opportunity to BUY BUY BUY is a fool.
He is the penultimate spruiker, peddling mortgage debt on the masses and being condescending to anybody who wont drink his kool aid.
'Panic selling is in full swing' with SALES DOWN TO RECORD LOWS... Genius. No really, people are charging in to the decline with panic sales causing sales volumes to plummet! Weve never seen anything like it sir, these lemmings are selling on mass, in a panic, causing sales volumes to plunge! Jesus Christ, there is such a rush to sell that properties are been withdrawn from the market left right and center, with low sales like this there is only one sure thing, panic selling is in full swing!
Consistent with my observations. This 2Bdr unit is indicative - Its in St Heliers and it went to auction over a month ago. Then price by negotiation at 850K, and now they've lowered the price to 839K. I checked out the open home and was the only one there. That being said the same property was only worth 650 in January this year. its a real roller-coaster at the moment.
Here are the factors affecting the Auckland market as I see it.
(-ve) Increasing restrictions on Chinese getting their money out of the country.
(-ve) More stringent restrictions on Chinese borrowing from NZ banks against Chinese income
(-ve) Imposition of very stringent LVR rules for NZ residents.
(+ve) Canada imposed a 15% foreigner tax. NZ is the only OECD country not to have any restrictions.
(-ve) Vancouver is crashing - if better deals can be had overseas then the Chinese will go there.
(-ve) Anticipated 2017 change in government. New government will likely implement policies which lower property prices.
overall I see more headwinds but that could all change in an instant if capital flows from overseas pick up again.
I believe around march they were predicting an Auckland price crash based on the figures, then april their was a big rebound in prices. Here we go again, you are just as guilty of making assumptions as those you target. Seasonally adjusted stratified price data is what I want to see.
The thing with Vancouver is that someone has come along with a spike, the 15%tax, and artificially started the deflation. I guess all eyes are on Vancouver to see what happens next after this deliberate intervention. If it turns ugly other countries won't follow suit.
Finally someone drew a straight line on that graph. Looks like its still going in one direction to me. It needs to take a dive for at least 3 or 4 months for it to be "Trending Down"...Oh wait summer is coming. No sign of a crash on the horizon in New Zealand anyway.
C'mon peeps ....keep a drinkin' the kool-aid, we have had 15 years in Awklund of "up, up and away" house prices, so "we" only know they travel, in one direction and that is UP ! ......have heard some vendors now taking their properties off the market though ....totally confused !! (well, I'm not really, the whole Awklund market is just a "ponzi" scheme based on the "greater fool" theory ) ....got out of it March this year ...enjoy the traffic jams folks !!
And foreign buyers looking to get their money out of harm’s way, and not caring about what price they pay? “Realty bus tours popular with Chinese and Indian buyers are a common sight, with purchases leading to unoccupied investment properties dubbed ‘ghost houses,’” as Bloomberg put it. But China is cracking down on money laundering. And the US government’s anti-money-laundering efforts recently stopped ignoring real estate. So foreign buyers too may be drying up, as the languishing prices indicate.
John Key says that FHB should buy apartments like they do in Australia.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/property/news/article.cfm?c_id=8&objectid=117…
If giving advise to follow Australia, why does not he follows and introduce tax on foreign buyers like Australia.
Currently there looks to be a lot more homes with asking prices in the West and South. In Auckland, over the past year, the outer suburbs actually went up proportionally far more than Central. It's not unusual to see houses fetching 70-100% above CV while Central was more like 20-40%. My prediction is that in a downturn the outer suburbs of Auckland will get hit harder.
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