Market Comment October 2018

Spring brings some fresh energy to Auckland’s Apartment market – rwcityapartments

As Spring bursts onto the scene, we (along with the apartment market) have an almighty spring in our step.

Our city office achieved a record number of listings in September. Confidence is growing in the market as owner occupiers continue to make the move for a more relaxed lifestyle choice, while on the flip side, smaller, higher-yielding investment apartments continue a resurgence as the values realign slightly with the net returns. And our sales board has been busy with plenty of activity, which is an encouraging sign of buyer confidence in the market.

The auction floor has been slightly tougher however. Even though there’s plenty of buyer competition and bidding, the gap between buyer and seller expectations is still a challenging one to bridge. But despite our under-the-hammer success rates dropping slightly in September, there’s been plenty of positive post-auction negotiations, resulting in successful sales soon after auction day.

Overall, as we head into Spring, we’re witnessing a re-energising of Auckland property market. So, if you need support navigating it – whether you’re buying, selling or investing in a city apartment – give one of our experts a call.

And if you’re a landlord or tenant, don’t miss our free 2018 Rent Event where we’ll help you gain some much-needed clarity around the changes we’ve seen over the last 18 months. Running from Tuesday 30th October to Saturday 3rd November, reserve your free seat at rentevent.co.nz

Will spring be a boon to buyers or sellers? It depends on where you live – oneroof.co.nz

The spring bounce for new listings coming onto the market has well and truly begun, with new listings higher than they were a year ago – both in Auckland and across the rest of New Zealand. At face value, that will be giving prospective buyers more choice, putting pressure on vendors to limit asking prices.

So, where could values head?

What matters most for values is whether listings rise by more or less than normal as we move through spring and summer. Market feedback from investor groups is reassuring; few existing landlords are thinking of responding to new regulations by selling their properties. Likewise, for existing owner-occupiers who are considering selling but don’t absolutely need to, New Zealand’s well-known afford-ability problem may encourage them to keep their property off the market.

Both these factors suggest that the likely rise in listings over the next few months may not be any bigger than normal, which in turn should help prevent the current orderly slowdown in values from turning into something worse. The competitive pressures in the mortgage lending market and further cuts to interest rates by some banks in the past days and weeks simply add to that benign outlook.

NZ property report September 2018 – realestate.co.nz

Confidence shows in the housing market as New Zealanders get active.

A deluge of new listings in Auckland, Southland, Wellington & Northland, as well as a national all-time high average asking price since records began in 2007 and all-time highs in six regions.

New Zealanders are right back into the housing market, with new property listings significantly up on realestate.co.nz, the country’s largest site for residential sale listings.

Real-time statistics from realestate.co.nz show the new listing deluge is led by the Auckland region with owners adding 3,896 homes for sale to the site, up by nearly a third (31.9%) compared to September 2017.

Nationally, there were 10,372 new property listings in September which is an increase of 11.7% on the same month last year, which is the highest number we have seen in a month of September since 2009 (excluding 2015).

The total number of homes on the market (22,847) and this is the highest number in a September month since 2015.

The reality is most Kiwis list their properties because they believe they can sell in the current market. That’s about confidence,” says realestate.co.nz spokesperson Vanessa Taylor.

“Property hunters are also out in force, with 855,326 unique browsers searching listings on our site across the country in the September month, which is right up there with summertime viewing levels,” she says.

“Of course, there’s always going to be unrealistic sellers and unrealistic buyers but if the house is priced right and you’re prepared to meet the market, then sales happen,” says Vanessa.

“While Auckland knocked it out of the ball park with 3,896 new listings in September, ending what could generally be described as a flat market period, three other regions were also in double digit new listing growth territory,” says Vanessa.

All-time high national average asking price, underpinned by all-time highs in six regions

Five of the six regions that registered record asking price highs in August have gone on to smash their own records again in September.

These regions have underpinned the all-time high national asking price for properties in September, says Vanessa Taylor.