CONFIDENCE SLOWLY RETURNING

BY SALLY LINDSAY

The total number of properties sold last month was 5,752, down from 5,776 in May 2022 (-0.4%), and up 30% month-on-month.

Seven regions, Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Wellington, Tasman, Marlborough and Southland all had a 30% increase or more in sales volumes month-on-month, with Marlborough topping the list with 66.7% in sales.

Nationally, new listings dropped by 18.1%, from 8,983 listings in May last year to 7,359 listings in the same month this year.

In May the median price dropped 8.2% year-on-year to $780,000 but there was no change month-on-month.

In the regions, Nelson had the biggest median price rise in May at 2.7% yearon-year and 6.9% month-on-month to $770,000.

Two districts reached record median prices: Grey District with a 18.7% increase year-on-year ($400,000) and Waitomo District taking top spot with a 53.4% increase year-on-year ($655,000).

The REINZ House Price Index (HPI), which measures the changing value of residential property nationwide, showed an annual drop of -11.2% nationwide.

Prices bounce back in some suburbs

House prices in dozens of suburbs across the country have risen in the past three months.

Kaipara District, in the Northland region had two top performing suburbs over the past quarter, with values in Maungaturoto and Kaiwaka up 4.7% and 3.5% respectively. CoreLogic’s Mapping the Market tool reveals.

Over the past year, the lower half of the South Island has also shown good value with prices increasing in 33 suburbs by at least 2%.

Across the country, the 128 suburbs where prices have increased point to a market that could be near the bottom, says Kelvin Davidson, CoreLogic’s chief property economist. Seventy one of these suburbs had a median value increase of at least 0.5%.

However, the mapping tool shows over the past 12 months, 860 suburbs declined in value, with 729 of those suburbs down at least 5%.

In Auckland property values dropped in all 195 suburbs analysed over the past 12 months, ranging from less than 5% per cent in areas such as Waiuku, Ponsonby, and Omaha, up to more than 16 % in Parau, Wattle Downs, and Totara Heights.

Nearly $300,000 wiped off Auckland house values

In Auckland, the country’s biggest housing market, the average house value has dropped by $282,647 since the beginning of last year.

The latest QV House Price Index shows the average value of homes across the entire country has fallen $174,835 since the peak at the beginning of last year.

Over the past three months to May the average house value declined by $13,671, leaving the average property nationwide valued at $888,930.

That figure is 13.7% lower than the same time last year and 20.2% higher than its pre-Covid-19 level.

While value drops across the country have remained in the middle 3% range over the past two months, QV operations manager James Wilson says it is still too early to say the market has bottomed out.

The average rate of home value decline has slowed this quarter in 11 of the country’s 16 largest urban areas – including in Auckland (-2.3%), Hamilton (-2%), Christchurch (-2.5%), and Wellington (-2.6%).

The biggest value drop between April and May was in Queenstown Lakes were homes on average dropped $18,380.

Sales lift but prices drop slightly

Auckland property sales have bounced back to what was being achieved at this time of the year preCovid.

Sales of 723 were their best in a month since May last year, after hitting their lowest in an April for 22 years.

Barfoot & Thompson managing director Peter Thompson says May’s sales are another sign the Auckland property market has either hit the bottom of the current cycle or is close to it. Sales were a third higher than the average monthly sales for each of the past three months.

The median sales price for the month at $955,000 is down 4% on that for April while the average price at $1,070,819 is down 1.5% on that for last month.

While the median price paid in May was down 15.1% on that 12 months ago, the average price was down much less at 10.9%.

A good flow of new listings reached the market in May, with 1,262 new listings for the month and at month’s end, the agency had 4,390 properties on its books – the lowest number in 14 months.

Building consents dip

New building consents dropped by 25.9% in April compared to the same month last year.

Stats NZ data shows consents were also down in April by 30.6% compared to March. This comes after a 25.1% drop in March compared to a year earlier.

On an annual basis new house consents in the 12 months to April were down 9.3% compared to the previous 12 months.

April is the third consecutive month the number of homes consented has been down by more than a quarter compared with the same month of the previous year. ✚