Auckland homes for sale hit record low

The property listings website said the average asking price for homes across the country in December remained high, while the inventory of properties available for sale hit a record low in Auckland.

The national average asking price was $480,815 last month, down 3.9% from November but up 7% on 2013.

Auckland's average asking price of $731,083 was marginally less than the record of $731,588 set in November. Wellington's was $462,511 and Canterbrury's $450,919.

The number of homes for sale across the country was at its lowest level since November 2013. 

Inventory is expressed as a measure of the number of weeks it would take to sell all unsold housing stock on the market at a given point in time.

The long-term national average is 36 weeks but in December inventory fell to 24.5 weeks of stock, with 15 of 19 regions experiencing falls in available property levels.

Auckland drove the fall in inventory, registering an all time low of 10.8 weeks of stock in December, a 21% fall on November, and a 13% drop on the same month in 2013. Bay of Plenty also saw a new record low of 31 weeks.

Realestate.co.nz chief executive Brendon Skipper said: "The shortage in the number of homes for sale, especially in the three main centres, underlines the favorable environment house sellers enjoy as they seek to maximise the value of their homes on the property market. In total we now have just 37,537 homes for sale in New Zealand, which is the lowest since September 2013.”

December was a quiet month for new listings with 8283 new homes coming on the market across the country, 39% down on November though slightly up on the same month in 2013.

“The number of new listings tends to remain low through January, however we do expect to see a significant lift of homes coming on to the market in February and March this year, which will help to ease the current low levels of inventory that we are experiencing," Skipper said.