Auckland’s summer holiday over

Trade Me Property’s data showed Auckland’s average asking price rose by 2% in February, which left it at a record high of $817,150.

This is in comparison to January when the city’s average asking price was $801,400 – a 0.5% decrease on the previous month.

Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries said Auckland’s property market may have winced in January, but new listings in February had injected some new energy into it.

“The expected selling price for an Auckland property was $710,250 a year ago, so we’ve seen expectations from sellers rise by 15% or more than $105,000 over the past 12 months.”

Around the country, property markets made up for the lost ground which followed changes to home loan lending criteria in October.

Trade Me Property’s data showed that, in February, the national average asking price went up by 1.6% on last month and 9% year-on-year.

This left it at $550,600.

Excluding Auckland, the average asking price rose by just 0.9% in February, but it still reached a new record high of $430,850.

Jeffries said the hesitancy over recent months had been “washed out” of the property market.

“In summer the market took its foot off the gas, but it looks to be back on track. While not hitting any record highs, the average asking price nationwide is up more than $45,000 on a year ago.”

Average asking prices were back on a steady track following some turbulence last year and it would be interesting to see if the rockiness of 2015 is behind us, he said.

Property markets across the regions grew stronger in February, with fewer regions showing a decline.

Average asking prices decreased in only two regions. They were Taranaki (down 11.2% year-on-year) and the West Coast (down 0.7% year-on-year).

Recent star markets continued to make an impression.

The Bay of Plenty was up 11.6% year-on-year to post a record high of $511,250 in February, while Waikato saw a 10% year-on-year rise to hit a new high of $421,000.

Wellington also showed some strength in average asking prices, with a year-on-year rise of 5.4% which left it at $468,300.

However, Jeffries said their data showed the apartment market was continuing to weaken.

While there was year-on-year growth of 12.1% in the national average asking price for apartments, it was easing fast after an intense period of growth.

The Auckland apartment market was heavily influencing this weakness, as it makes up nearly 60% of the national apartment market, he said.

“Auckland apartment average asking prices have been on a roller-coaster ride from $433,900 a year ago to surpass $600,000 in November, before easing back in February 2016 to $513,650.”