Inventory at record lows

The report for August shows listings on the site were up 3% on the same time the year before but ongoing high demand drove the number of properties for sale to record lows.

The level of new listings coming on to the market in August rose to 10,715 from 9857 in July.

It would now take just 23 weeks to sell all the property on the market nationwide – 24% less time than it would have taken a year ago and well below the long-term average of 38 weeks.

Realestate.co.nz marketing manager Paul McKenzie said Auckland’s shortage of property was driving the inventory fall, although 15 of the 19 regions measured reported drops. Seventeen have inventory levels below long-term averages.

Auckland only has 11 weeks’ worth of property for sale, 61% less than the long-term average of 29 weeks. That pushed the asking price to an average of $650,114, the highest in seven years.

It had 3702 new listings in the month, a similar number to August 2012.

Record lows were also reported in Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

Nationally the average asking price for homes remained steady, down just 0.4% to $463,142 from the record high asking price of $465,191 set in July.

Eight regions reported drops in asking price. The drop in the Central North Island was the biggest, down 14% compared to the month before at $328,689.