Residential property vendors continue to reduce their asking prices as the volume of houses for sale remains high over winter.
The national average asking price of residential properties available for sale on property website Realestate.co.nz was $828,401 in June, down $23,887, or 3%, from $852,288 in May.
Average asking prices declined in all main centres in June compared to May. The only districts where asking prices increased for the month were the smaller provincial centres of Coromandel, Central North Island, Gisborne, Nelson, Central Otago-Lakes and Southland.
In Auckland, the country's largest housing market by far, the average asking price declined to $982,679 in June, down from $1,023,760 in May, a drop of $41,081 (-4%).
That was the first time this year Auckland's average asking price has been below $1 million.
In the Wellington region the average asking price declined from $836,429 in May to $791,128, a drop of $45,301 for the month (-5.4%). The first graph below shows the longer term asking price trends in the main centres.
The total amount of stock for sale on the website declined for the third month in a row to 32,384 properties for sale at the end of June.
That decline was expected because stock levels always decline over winter as market activity cools along with the weather. See the second graph below.
However, stock levels were still up 3.6% compared to June last year and up 31.4% compared to June 2023, with the amount of stock for sale remaining at its highest level since 2014.
All of which suggests buyers will continue to have the upper hand in a very well stocked market, and vendors will need to be very realistic in their price expectations.
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