Winter is finally starting to bite the housing market, with the country's largest real estate agency reporting a drop in sales volumes and average selling prices in June.
Harcourts sold 2150 homes throughout the country in June, down from 2344 in May, while the average selling price dropped from $591,812 in May to $575,944 in June.
The number of new listings the company signed up also dropped off, from 2330 in May to 2280 in June.
However, the average selling price was still up 10% compared to June last year, while the number of sales was up 2.9% compared to June last year.
And the stock of homes available for sale remains tight, with Harcourts having 5681 homes listed on its books at the end of June compared with 7747 in June last year, a decline of 27%.
Harcourts chief executive Chris Kennedy said the market had hit a typical winter slowdown, but was still growing strongly compared to previous years.
"The interesting aspect of the winter slowdown this year is that it's impacting on the number of new properties listed, but there is still plenty of buyers out there looking and making deals," he said.
"That means stock levels across the country are dropping.
"Written sales across the country are up by almost 3% on June last year.
"There's plenty of motivated buyers still out there and increasingly they're competing over fewer properties."
|
No. of sales May |
No. of sales June | Average price May | Average price June | |
| Auckland/Northland | 718 | 651 | $916,634 | $909,733 |
| Central North Island | 531 | 457 | $451,800 | $433,391 |
| Wellington | 338 | 293 | $437,874 | $437,123 |
| Christchurch | 431 | 428 | $553,156 | $496,409 |
| Rest of South Island | 288 | 256 | $398,252 | $371,941 |
| All NZ | 2344 | 2150 | $591,812 | $575,944 |
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