This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
The national median price for residential property in New Zealand has hit a new in June with the Auckland market which defied trends, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.
According to the REINZ Resident Market Report June 2006, the national median price for residential property in New Zealand jumped to $310,000 in June.
REINZ’s national president Howard Morley said the small increase has shown a continuation in the levelling off in the market experienced over the last nine months.
“The national median price represented a strengthening of the market across the country with nine of the 12 real estate regions reporting higher median prices,” he added.
In June, for the first time in a long while, Auckland defied recent trends with a rise in the regional median from $400,000 to $405,000, a strong showing in the Auckland metropolitan area market with the median up from $405,000 to $410,000 and the Auckland City median up strongly from $422,500 to $445,000.
According to the REINZ, the national sales figure was down from 9,642 in May to 8,428 in June.
The metropolitan Auckland sales showed only a slight decline from 2,663 in May to 2,564 in June and the Auckland City sales figures were up slightly from 1,004 in May to 1,014 in June, defying the national trend.
“The signs are Auckland is reawakening and is showing signs that both buyers and sellers in Auckland now have confidence in the market.
“The same confidence that has been experienced in other regions through most of 2006. The reduction of risk and the elimination of some uncertainty in any investment market is important and Real Estate is no different,” Morley said.
“Auckland is also coming out the other end of a sustained period of sales of cheaper inner-city apartments that has tended to depress median prices,” he added.
The table of percentage increases, year on year, shows the national median is up 8.96% on the figure of $284,500 a year ago.
The leading region was Manawatu/Wanganui up 25.11% followed by Otago up 14.82% and Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Gisborne up 14%.
Auckland’s recent rally has lifted it up to 10.5% on June 2005.
Around the regions, the median price in Waikato/Bay of Plenty/Gisborne was up from $283,000 to $285,000; Hawkes Bay was up from $250,000 in May to $259,500; Manawatu/Wanganui was up from $187,250 to $208,000 and Wellington was up from $315,000 to $328,000.
Three of the five southern regions experienced a reverse, with Nelson/Marlborough down from $290,000 to $284,000, Canterbury/Westland down from $275,000 to $271,250 and Central Otago Lakes down from $420,000 to $391,500.
Otago was steady as usual, however with its median up from $218,500 to $226,500, and Southland performed similarly up from $130,000 in May to $142,500.
Days to sell improved slightly falling from 38 to 37.
In the major metropolitan areas, Hamilton City saw its median down from $305,000 in May to $299,750, on turnover well down from 425 to 338 while Tauranga was up from $333,000 to $351,000, on turnover almost steady at 165 sales compared with 163 in May.
Christchurch City Metropolitan area saw the median down from $295,000 to $290,000 on sales down from 1,081 in May to 824 in June and Dunedin City saw a rally in its median, up from $235,000 to $250,000 on sales down from 254 to 237.
By Kathryn O’Meara
