MARKET COMMENT JULY 2018

Encouraging signs all round as listing and sale opportunities continue to shine. – Ray White City Apartments

More often than not, the property landscape slows down in winter with the busier months happening early in the calendar year. However, despite some chilling temperatures this June and against the grain of the residential housing market, the Auckland apartment market has remained steady, and our sales numbers are consistently in line with the traditionally busier months, which is incredibly encouraging.

Of course, a changing market can be challenging to read. But our auction room has always been a reliable indication of market activity, and as such, they’ve been buzzing with buyers throughout June.

Specifically, we’re seeing competitive bidding on almost all auction properties. And while there has been a slight drop off with our under-the-hammer success, we’re continuing to see many multiple-offer situations arise immediately after auctions with a high percentage of passed-in apartments selling soon after.

This activity continues to give us confidence in the auction process demonstrating that, regardless of a changing market, the landscape remains very effective in creating buyer commitment and competition.

As for new listings, June has been a strong period for our team as many owners look to sell and move on from their investment after years of positive returns. While on the investment front, there’s a growing demand for the more traditional, ‘shoe-box’-style apartment as appetites for high-tenant demand, future growth and stability appear positive.

If you’re looking to buy, sell or invest in Auckland’s advantageous property market, get in touch with one of our specialist apartment team and we’ll give you expert advice on maximising on the current market activity.

NZ property report June 2018 – realestate.co.nz

New property listings drop significantly in June while asking prices and buyer interest hold steady. Auckland region records a fall in new listings and asking prices are back to 2017 levels.

Real-time statistics from realestate.co.nz show across the country, new property listings fell in 15 of the 19 regions in June, which represents a 9.9% drop compared to June last year.  Nationally, there were a total of 8,136 new property listings. New property listings in the Auckland region for the month of June fell 14.8% (2,936 new listings) compared to June 2017.

Buyer interest holds steady

In last month’s realestate.co.nz report, the results of research commissioned by the company was released showing there were many more buyers than sellers intending to be active in the New Zealand property market in the next 12 months.*

“We said at the time that this would put increasing pressure on housing stock in the next 12 months,” says Vanessa.

“Our own tracking of unique visitors to our website is also reflecting this research,” she says.

More than 800,000 unique users** visited realestate.co.nz in June.

“With 22,605 homes for sale on the site in June, it shows that the property market is still busy, despite the cooler months,” says Vanessa.

“Our users spend an average of 8:11 minutes on site viewing more than eight pages per session.

“It’s fair to say New Zealanders are still active in the property market,” she says.

Why a sudden drop is highly unlikely – oneroof.co.nz

The slowdown in the Auckland market is now spreading to other parts of the country.

While 2015 and 2016 were boom times, there were hints that it was running out of steam late last year. And while there was a spike early this year, that too has fizzled.

According to CoreLogic, five of the six main centres have seen property values fall in at least two months, and while this is no surprise to keen market watchers, it is interesting to at last see the data coming through.

CoreLogic has some ideas as to why the market has cooled. People are asking too much for their property, people’s wages will only stretch so far when it comes to getting a loan, and the banks are being cautious.

CoreLogic senior research analysts Kelvin Davidson says: “The labour market [is] strong, and mortgage rates [are] unlikely to rise to any meaningful degree for at least another 12-18 months, nobody’s predicting that the patchy slowdown across the country will transform into a widespread slump.

“A 10 per cent drop over the next 12-18 months (as was seen around the GFC) would push down average values by close to $68,000, from around $678,000 to $610,000,” says Davidson.

“That’s clearly a lot of money, but it’s also worth pointing out that there’s not actually a real loss until a property is sold. In addition, it would only return values to where they were as recently as August 2016. In other words, recent entrants to the housing market would be most vulnerable, particularly if unemployment started to rise significantly and/or mortgage rates increased sharply.