Residential property prices still reach new record

The latest residential market report for April showed sales dropped by more than 2500 from 10,094 in March to 7,576 in April, well below the April 2005 sales of 8,875.

But the national median price defied the more gloomy expectations with an increase to a record $305,000 in April up from $302,000 in March and 12.13% up on the April 2005 median of $272,000.

“With just seventeen working days in April, one of which was sandwiched between two holidays, its no wonder turnovers were down”, REINZ National President, Mr Howard Morley, said today.

“April is always a difficult month with Easter and Anzac Day but this year the way those public holidays fell, it made for an unusually short business month which obviously affected sales. However we are encouraged by the way prices held up”

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Morley said the market had been hard to pick so far this year, “as usual there has been no shortage of predictions that prices would fall but the market is proving reasonably determined in terms of values.

The market medium prices have remained relatively steady and as predicted have levelled off. Over the last nine months the range of the median price has been from $285,000 - $305,000 and over the last seven months has been in a tighter range between $295,000 - $305,000. The seasonal changes for the volume of sales have been expected although volumes are less than last year. Nonetheless, overall confidence doesn’t seem to have deteriorated greatly.”

Of the 12 regions surveyed by the Real Estate Institute, eight experienced rises in median prices and four experienced falls although the changes both up and done were small in all districts.

Days to sell lengthened slightly from 33 to 34 days compared with 28 days in April 2005, confirming that the overall market trend in 2006 is one of gradual slowing, according to Morley.

The Auckland region median was up from $385,000 in March to $387,250, some 4.94% higher than the April 2005 median of $369,000. Auckland region sales recorded one of the biggest falls down from 3,474 in March to 2,450 in April.

The Auckland metropolitan median was up from $385,750 to $390,000 despite sales falling from 3060 in March to 2186 in April.

Wellington region experienced a comparatively strong months with the median up from $323,000 to $335,000, a 21.81% gain year-on-year, and sales down less than the average, from 1,145 in March to 973 in April.

Canterbury Westland was another region to enjoy a strong increase in its median, up from $266,050 in March to $275,000 in April, a 13.63% increase for the year.

In terms of annual growth Taranaki leads with a 47.56 per cent increase, followed by Manawatu and Wanganui on 22.58%, and Wellington third with its 21.81%.

Sales of properties under $400,000 fell from 7,204 in March to 5,347 in April, which was also down on the April 2005 figure of 6,823.

Sales of properties worth between $400,000 and $599,999 were down from 1,901 in March to 1,455 in April, up on the April 2005 figure of 1,379.

Sales of properties worth more than $1 million fell from 234 in March to 179 in April, but were up on the April 2005 figure of 137.

Full regional report here