Residential property sales volumes up 6.4% year-on-year in October

The housing market appears to have made a reasonable start to summer, with 7505 residential property sales around the country in October, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ).

That was up 15.4% compared to September and up 6.4% compared to October last year.

Prices were also firmer with the median house price coming in at $786,000 for the month, up 1.7% compared to September but still down by 1.1% compared to October last year.

The REINZ House Price Index (HPI), which adjusts for changes in the mix of properties sold each month and is widely considered to be the best indicator of price movements, was up 0.6% compared to September and up 0.3% compared to October last year.

(See the table below for the detailed regional HPI figures. See the graphs below for the long term REINZ median price and sales volumes trends).

"The market appears to have stabilised," REINZ said in its report on October's sales.

"This may be due to median prices remaining relatively level year-on-year across the country."

"Median sales prices across the country have stayed fairly steady in recent months, and this month is no exception," REINZ Chief Executive Lizzy Ryley said.

"First home buyers continue to be a dominant group across the country, taking advantage of lower interest rates and a stabilised market in terms of price , closely followed by owner-occupiers," she said.

"Salespeople are telling us that the warmer weather, lower interest rates and easing lending criteria have brought more people back into the market and boosted activity in many regions, which we can see from the data," she said.