Energy builds in Auckland property market heading towards spring…

Auckland property continues to trade well through the winter. Illustrating reassuring signs of a stable and sustainable market that is building energy heading into spring.
We saw very little change in median house prices with the North Shore down 1.3% from the same period last year to $985,000. North Shore sales volumes were up slightly to 274 compared to 268 in July 2017. Across the Auckland & North Shore markets sales volumes are somewhat below 10-year averages.

We have seen headlines around Labours new bill to curb foreigners buying New Zealand homes. Around 3% of housing was purchased by those without NZ citizenship – predominantly Chinese and Australians. The Overseas Investment Bill will restrict this although exclusions are in place for people from Australia & Singapore due to free-trade rules. It seems unlikely that banning foreign buyers will have any impact on house prices and ultimately the underlying problem of increasing supply and lending restrictions remains paramount. The only caveat will be if the figures given by Statistics New Zealand are correct, as the foreign buyers in the Auckland market were around 7% and 9% in Queenstown.

We continue to experience strong demand from qualified buyers for the right properties. Last week Harcourts Cooper & Co Auctions had an average of 1.9 bidders per property. This is the highest we have reported this year. In July we had a 72% success rate with our auction properties plus an additional 5% under offer.

But the most significant indicator of a property is how well things are selling and at present things are selling well, as there is a shortage of stock. So the market is stable and well positioned and pointing towards an active spring!