Asking price growth stalls

The average asking price across all property types nationwide reached a record high in November last year but fell back 1% to $504,300 for the three months to December, the website reported.

Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries said it was expected.

“December is traditionally one of the quietest months of the year so this slowdown is more about there being fewer new listings, rather than an underlying weakness in price expectation by sellers.”

Jeffires said there had been strong underlying growth over the medium and long term. “In December we saw average asking prices across New Zealand increase by almost 13% year-on-year, and over the past five years the expected property prices have risen more than 26%.”

All regions except West Coast, Northland and Gisborne posted year-on-year increases of more than 5%, and Gisborne was the only region that reported a year-on-year fall in price expectation.

Auckland and Christchurch experienced double-digit percentage growth in asking prices.

Many provincial areas of the country witnessed significant rises including Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, Southland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Otago and Marlborough.

Jeffries said the spread of increases indicated ”seller optimism” was spreading to more of the country.

In Wellington, the 6.9% growth in sales price expectation over the year was rapid compared to 0.9% growth in the 2013 year.

Auckland was up 11.2% in the year ended December 2013 but closed out 2014 with a 10.7% annual rise. Canterbury was also similar in 2013 and 2014: up 9.2%in 2013 and up 10.9% in 2014.

Jeffries said the trend in increasing price expectation for smaller properties continued. “In December 2013 the annual growth in asking price was barely 2% [for one- and two-bedroom properties], but this has accelerated through 2014 to end with annual growth of over 16%. There is growing interest from investors, as well as first-time buyers.”

In the Auckland market, the selling price expectation of small homes hit a new high in eight of the past 12 months, rising from $465,750 in January 2014 to $531,850 in December 2014.

The trend for medium and large homes has cooled by comparison: the price expectation growth rate for homes with five or more bedrooms has fallen from 11% in 2013 to 7.6% this year.

Jeffries said the apartment market continued to grow with new record highs in selling price expectation. “Across the country, average asking prices for apartments in December rose to $431,900, up from $375,900 in December 2013. In Auckland, things were very hot - this rise in price represented a 22% increase taking it to new high of $436,900. This clearly reflects a continuing strong demand for apartments in our largest city.”

The average asking price for units in Christchurch exceeded $300,000 in December for the second time.