September sales at the country's largest real estate agency were down 12.6% compared to a year ago, and average prices were down in Auckland and Christchurch but up elsewhere.
Harcourts sold 1741 residential properties throughout the country in September, down 252 from 1993 in September last year.
The national average selling price was $573,392, up 1% compared to September 2016.
However there were big regional differences.
In Auckland the number of sales was down 15% compared to a year earlier, while the average selling price dropped from $953,997 in September last year to $935,927 in September this year, (-1.8%).
That compares with average selling prices of more than $1 million earlier this year.
In the Wellington region the number of sales in September was down 13.6% compared to a year earlier while the average selling price was up just 1%.
In Christchurch sales were down 11% compared to September last year, while the average selling price was down 4%.
However while the number of properties being sold is decreasing, the number of homes on the market is increasing, giving potential buyers more choice.
Harcourts had 6119 residential properties available for sale at the end of September, up 2.4% compared to September last year.
But its Auckland offices had 25% more properties available for sale at the end of September than they did in September 2016.
The number of properties auctioned by Harcourts in September was down 36.9% compared to a year earlier.
Harcourts chief executive Chris Kennedy said the market was still strong despite the fall in the number of sales.
"We are still in a good market, it's just in a different place to where it was 18 months ago during the frenzied peak," he said.
"If a vendor's expectations are reasonable, their property will sell."
39 Comments
...and the new RV's are out.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=119…
Will we face an ugly period of high rates on falling house values and a Council overloaded with valuation disputes?
It won't make much difference to rates. Not out yet either. Fake news.
However, deputy mayor Bill Cashmore urged Aucklanders not to panic as any rise in value did not automatically correspond to an identical rates hike.
Any rise in rates was based more on how the property value rose in comparison to the area's average, he said.
"Say the average valuation increase is 50 per cent and your house has gone up by 50 per cent, it won't affect your rates other than the normal incremental increase."
But he said if there was a rise well above or below the average, then this could see a larger hike or drop in rates bill.
Well you cant really pity them.
If you pay top dollar for a piece of junk you have to live with your decision. "A fool and their money are soon parted".
Most of these people will be owner occupiers anyway so nothing changes unless you are forced to sell with negative equity
Blame that on Len Brown who adjusted the uniform annual and variable rates to favour those in low value suburbs. (At the expense of the higher value suburbs).
Now that those low value suburbs aren't so low any more, their total rates bills will increase more (as a percentage) than those in the higher value suburbs because in these suburbs the value has not increased by such a high percentage.
3:54pm Banana republic time & Zach has time for this !
Old P&T work practices prevail
Auckland RE trend is definitively in downward mode
The wise heads won’t touch Auckland property for a good while
Of course there’s always room for the parasitic to lose money so spruik onward
For those not interested in more fake news from Doom and Gloom merchants. Up to you to decide but a lot of people think that the property boom is NOT over and there is more money to be made. Even Bill English calls this expert the Property Guy - and I have heard great things about him and will be attending https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/the-auckland-property-boom-is-not-over-t…
Up to $1000 to attend this dudes one-day seminar. I can see how HE makes his money.
Not sure how Bill English referring to him as "the Property Guy" is an endorsement. No context is provided. For example, was it the answer to a question "who's the guy that pays no tax?" ...
See here, NorthernLights:
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/874576057579565056
All tweets here:
http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com/
Trade Me listings in Auckland currently 9,981, back over 10,000 by the end of the week...
Nail in the coffin will be Winston's press conference where he will confirm his policies of drastically reducing immigration and banning foreign speculators have been agreed by his coalition partner(s).
You should have said "end of the day" ... currently at 10,001 as of 4:38PM
https://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/categoryattributesearchresults.aspx?13…-
Just think of all those people who will be able to buy houses in Auckland and Christchurch as those prices continue to drop. Even better for them in Christchurch where dropping rents will help them build up a deposit easier. Not bitter. Just pleased to see it getting easier for those who were not born in the era you and I were born in The Boy.
Gordon firstly our rents have not needed adjusting for our renewals.
Secondly our fixed rate interest rates due up early next year will be less than we are currently paying.
Thirdly even if rents drop for other landlords there are many tenants who won't buy anyway and if they do then that is great.
I can’t see rental prices in Auckland coming down because they didn’t really go up that much in the first place and the today’s rental prices are fair. Also rentals are the cheapest houses so might only see a 15% drop. It’s the more expensive that’ll get hit the most. Also it’s a bit of a win I think for landlords with the new government, if house prices drop which I’m totally expecting . Less Aucklanders will be able to cash in so the masses will stop leaving and immigration will still be high with ether government. Add that to Auckland’s shortage and you could even get higher rents. I’m not saying house prices will get better or flatten out at all. They’re simply to high for the locals. The rest of nz is a hole different story, . Rentals went up to much and soon there’ll be heaps to pick from
If figures are so easy to come by, why is it that no one seems capable of producing ones that state:
1. NEW listings per week.
2. Existing listings over 3m old; 6m old, 12m old?
This line about "buyers have more choice" is v tired. Buyers are off to the hills, so "choice" is not relevant. They also refer to "market". There are many markets, as he well knows. Some sales markets are down 50% year on year and others only 2%. There is not more choice in the area person wants to buy. Vagary and generalities
The nz property market is now a , sales on a falling market. Just like you have a sales on a rising market but the opposite. The market will keep feeding on itself to it finds a bottom. The same when it feeds on itself up and hits a top with to much debt. This cycle will drop when it finds affordability mostly from FHBers because in a falling market with no capital gains a lot amount of punters are gone and this cycle has triple the problems with the exiting of foreign ownership and very large debt with cash flow interest only loans . Also we have hardly no assistance this cycle from the dropping of interest rates like the 5% drop we had after the 2008 bust. That is LARGE and extremely helpful , also high cv with falling prices. Immigration numbers will drop. Foreign ownership will be stopped officially . Auckland prices will keep dropping. Aucklanders won’t be able to sell or get the large amounts to make it worth why’ll moving to other towns with there large amounts of money like they have been in mass. The rest of nzs prices drop because there locals can’t afford the current prices ether. In short this hole letting nz housing go wild by national will and already is being reversed. Personally I think this is a good thing. Making a economy on a made housing boom is stupid . Specially at these mad levels. And we all pay the price now. The housing figures have only really started going negative. The election and false hope slowed it . But now it truly on it way down and probably for 2 years and then years of stagnation because of so much long term debt
Its amazing some on here think a boom is a good thing but who cares about the one that get priced out and a bust is a bad thing and who cares about the existing home owners. In my book they are equally good and deserve fair comment. In fact the boom team are the unfair side because they creat these bubbles from greed. If the market was forced somehow to only rise about 5% per year we wouldn’t be having these conversations
"If the market was forced somehow to only rise about 5% per year "
So easy to underestimate exponential growth .... thats doubling in 15 years, 5 times higher in 33 years .... and you think wage growth would keep up with that? Nope.
Which is why capitalism has a big problem.
"capitalism doesn't force anyone to crash interest rates, that's a choice"
Right. So why dont central banks just hike interest rates to normalise things? A simple "choice".
Do you think they might set-off the mother of all crashes?
30 years of general rates decline says that Capitalism is reaching the end of road.
I am sure he would be happy with 5% value growth - but that is not going to happen it is going to drop 10% in the near future and then stay constant for another ten years. And it is not capitalism that is the problem. In fact capitalism has moved a billion people out of poverty in the last twenty years. The problem is preventing vested interest controlling markets - such as inner-city leafy suburbs not allowing more intense zoning.
The National Government forced the UP on Auckland then up-zoned those 'leafy' suburbs without fair right of reply. The poetic justice is that the owners appear to have resisted the temptation to cash in and are instead making their houses larger given the new max 40% site coverage.
O4 normal - the point is whatever exponential growth figure we "choose" it soon requires a heap more resource use to let incomes keep pace (alternatively return on capital goes to zero)... which is why capitalism has to run into resource limit problems.
google Albert Barlett lectures on youtube ...
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