HOUSE PRICES CONTINUE TO TREND UPWARDS

Garry Tranter from Price My House for Free Limited

House prices rise 6.9% across New Zealand according to latest REINZ figures. The median house price for New Zealand rose 6.9% in February to $530,000 up from $496,000 in February 2017 according to the latest data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), source of the most complete and accurate real estate data in New Zealand.

The median house price for New Zealand excluding Auckland rose even higher, seeing an 8.4% increase to $450,000 from the same time last year.

Prices in Auckland increased at a more moderate 3.7% to $858,000 from the same time last year (up from $827,000) and were up 4.6% month-on-month.

The Hawke’s Bay saw a price increase of 18.4% to a record high of $444,000 up from $375,000 in February 2017 or up 3.3% from January 2018.

Bindi Norwell, Chief Executive at REINZ says: “Median house prices increased in 14 out of 16 regions across New Zealand during February 2018 compared to February 2017, including a record high in the Hawke’s Bay. The only regions not to experience an increase were the West Coast and Gisborne which saw decreases of 10.7% and 3.1% respectively.

“The Hawke’s Bay has seen record price increases for two months in a row now, with prices having increased $26,000 since the end of 2017. Clearly the region is proving extremely popular.

Additionally, the recent announcement by the Regional Economic Development Minister, Shane Jones, that nearly $9 million will be spent to re-open the Wairoa-Napier line for logging trains will bring significant development for the Hawke’s Bay region,” points out Norwell.

“Auckland’s median price while continuing to slowly creep upwards, is clearly showing signs of moderated growth rather than the double digits we saw throughout 2016 and 2017. This is far more positive for the region as we know double-digit increases are not sustainable in the long term,” continues Norwell.

Volumes continued to show positive momentum in February with the number of properties sold across New Zealand increasing by 1.2% year-on-year to 6,373 properties.

The number of properties sold in Auckland during February increased by 2.0% to 1,600 (up from 1,568 in February 2017).

Regions with the biggest increase in sales count year-on-year were:

• West Coast – up 50.0% (45 sales compared to 30 in February 2017) – the highest number of properties sold since May 2012

• Nelson – up 25.8% (117 sales compared to 93 in February 2017) – the highest number of properties sold since March 2007

• Southland – up 9.7% (170 sales compared to 155 in February 2017).

“In February, 9 out of 16 regions saw an increase in the number of properties sold, pointing to strong regional growth in the majority of the country. Nelson saw the highest number of properties sold in nearly 11 years and the West Coast saw the highest number of properties sold in just under 6 years –so there have been some really strong localised results,” says Norwell.

“From a national perspective, we’ve seen the number of properties sold year-on-year increase for two months in a row now. It’s not quite enough data to call a trend, but with nearly 300 more houses sold for the year-to-date when compared to 2017, it’s certainly a positive sign for the industry,” points out Norwell.