The housing market continued in its winter slump in July, with little movement in the number of new listings or the total amount of stock for sale, and an ongoing decline in asking prices.
Property website Realestate.co.nz received 7737 new residential listings in July, slightly less (-4.2%) than the 8080 it received in July last year, but up a whopping 25.7% compared to the 6156 it received in July 2023.
Total stock levels on the website showed a similar trend, with 30,430 residential properties available for sale on Realestate.co.nz at the end of July, barely changed (-0.4%) compared to the 30,556 properties for sale in July last year, but up by almost a third (31.8%) compared to the 23,090 properties available for sale in July 2023.
Asking prices continued to slide, with the national average (unadjusted) asking price declining for the second month in a row, from $852,288 in May to $820,727 in July, a drop of $31,561 (-3.7%) in the last two months.
Compared to the average asking price peak of $994,885 set in January 2022, the average asking price has now declined by $174,158 (-17.5%).
The price slide appears to be particularly entrenched in the Auckland region, where it has declined for five consecutive months, from $1,082,500 in February this year to $969,695 in July, a decline of $112,805 (-10.4%) in the last five months.
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22 Comments
RNZ this am - Listings are down 4% on a year ago. Home are being snapped up!
Susan Edmunds by any chance? She was hired soon after the new government came in. She is a housing journalist. But the point is, RNZ didn't have a housing journalist before iirc
She's spamming the site with some 2 articles a day trying to make housing happen. Reminds me of this: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/stop-trying-to-make-fetch-happen
Thanks for you work Greg.
Always informative and without puff.
Rare form of work but so useful.
And this headline in Stuff this morning
National housing stock falls for third month in a row, 2000 fewer homes for sale.
Housing stock in New Zealand has fallen for the third month in a row, according to realestate.co.nz’s latest Property Report, with July listings down nearly 2000 compared with the previous month.
Nationally, just 30,430 properties were listed on the site in July — a 0.4% drop compared with the same month last year. It continues a steady decline from April’s 35,924 listings, and reflects ongoing supply pressure in the market, the report said.
Thank you Greg for a more balanced piece of reporting
Saying something about winter might be appropriate
The edging of prices downward is also counter-seasonal. You commonly see median prices decline in summer - because the pool of first and second home buyers have kids at school and move houses at the end of the school year.
As the owner of two houses and an apartment in Auckland I'm delighted to see prices drop. They need to go much further to reach some kind of reality. Then my adult children in their late thirties might begin to dream of buying instead of renting. Life improves when you own your own place - just cleaning the paintwork cheers you up rather than being a chore; choosing your own colour scheme is a treat. Down by 17.5%; maybe another 30% before prices become affordable for working couples.
be the most singular way to reverse the Aus drain.
I have family in Aus who would like to live in NZ again, but they simply cannot justify the large loss in salary for an increased cost of living, all in the name of the lifestyle on offer in NZ.
Good morning, please tell me that you're making better use of the capital than your adult children could. Getting a foothold on a property and servicing their own mortgage makes better sense than servicing someone else's via rent payments.
Hmmm...sounds like his children are a ways of inheriting and getting any free land from Sing. Accordingly they are not blessed yet with the easy ride that can bring.
.. bit of hypocrisy going on there eh!
Yes saying "I have three properties and my kids have none between them and it isn't fair". Look in the mirror! I realty don't think that complaining on interest.co that its harder now to buy a home is going to bring earth shattering change
My wife and I live in one. Eldest daughter and her family in another. The apartment in CBD makes a modest profit most years but because of mortgage is cash flow negative. Just been too lazy to sell it after children finished studying - should make about $100k profit if sold. Total CV $2.5m with $0.5m mortgage. Four adult children. Our family would be better off if house prices halved although I'd leave less inheritance.
Some on here are missing the link between existing house prices and the cost to build.
A 400m2 section in Hawkes Bay is close to $400k, then build cost, section development such as fencing, concrete and landscaping.
The info below is from an article earlier today.
When the number of new dwelling consents peaked at 13,251 in Q4 2021, the average estimated build cost (excluding land) was $379,656 per dwelling.
By Q2 this year, the average building cost had swelled to a record $471,683, up $92,027 (+24.2%) compared to the Q3 2021 peak.
& ~$100k of that section cost will be councils development contribution rort, aligned with all other councils
This insane home pricing in NZ creates fertile ground for disruption and major innovation.
Cannot wait until the great Zuru home start popping out of there factories at 50k a pop.
https://zuru.tech/homes
You talk about the price of land as an immutable fact, rather than the obvious pressure point that could fall if there is more supply. I also note recent chat about tradies wages falling as competition increases, and reduction of barriers to foreign building supplies so there is potential there too
Sing…I need to ask, when did you buy your two houses and apartment?
You could get a valuation, take another 30% off that, then sell the houses to your kids for the 47.5% lower price you feel is better 👌
About 20 years ago. Total cost $800k but total mortgage is still $450k. CV value is just over $2.5m.
Less jobs. Greater unemployment. More departures. Less arrivals. Construction in a slump. Govt wallet closed. Tourism down. Trade war raging. Hopelessness up. Gangs up. Drugs up. Searise up. Insurance policy exceptions up. Inflation up. All equals further stagflation with and emphasis on stagger.
Should be no surprise that the ponzi continues to deflate.
The only real questions is when will the banks starts shooting the defaulters...
The obvious labour tax is clearly an inheritance tax
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