Southland property market begins year with strongest sales

The sustained late run of Southland took it to the national lead in terms of year-on-year regional price increases, with a 25.55% rise over the January 2006 figure of $124,250.

Nationally, the residential property market started 2007 with much stronger sales but with a customary easing of the national median property price in January.

The national median price eased from $330,000 in December to $327,000 in January largely due to a lower volume of higher priced property sales, says REINZ national president Murray Cleland.

However, Cleland says that the good liquidity in January, given the fact that most of the country was on holiday for half of the period, “bodes well for 2007 and suggests that liquidity and buyer confidence will be improved this year”.

January sales reached 7,566 compared with 6,360 in January 2006, with days to sell the same at 38.

The national median price is up 9% from a year ago, from $300,000 to $327,000.

Following Southland as the next fastest growing region was Manawatu/Wanganui, up 19.44% over the year from $180,000 in January 2006 to $215,000 in January 2007. In third place was Taranaki, up 18.47% from $230,000 in January 2006 to $272,500 in January 2007.

“This is very much a continuation of the trend we saw in 2006 where the growth rate in house prices for the major metropolitan areas was slowing after the dramatic growth experienced between 2003 and 2005, and now the smaller provinces and their cities are playing catch-up,” Cleland says.

Of the 12 regions, six experienced rises, four falls and two had unchanged medians.

Northland was up from $290,500 in December to $305,000 in January while Auckland eased back from $422,500 in December to $415,000, mainly as a result of weaker medians in North Shore City and Auckland City.

Waikato/Bay of Plenty increased from $300,000 in December to $307,875 in January, helped by strong performances by Mount Maunganui/Papamoa with a median up from $397,000 in December to $420,000 in January, and Gisborne City up from $220,000 in December to $243,000 in January.

Hawkes Bay was also looking strong with a rise in median from $255,000 in December to $280,000 in January.

Taranaki lifted its median from $270,000 in December to $272,500 in January, while Wellington fell back a little from a very strong median of $365,000 in December to $351,868 in January.

Nelson Marlborough was also down, from $320,000 in December to $307,000 in January, while Canterbury/Westland was unchanged at $290,000.

Central Otago Lakes was up from $422,500 to $432,200 in January but Otago eased from $229,000 in December to $221,750 in January.

Sales of properties under $400,000 were down from 5,365 in December to 5,025 in January while sales of properties worth $400,000-$599,000 eased from 1,873 in December to 1,772 in January.

The number of property sales in the $600,000-$999,999 bracket dropped noticeably from 788 in December to 615 in January, as did those of $1 million plus properties, whose sales were down from 219 in December to 154 in January.