Units buck slowing trend

Auckland’s average asking price dropped by 0.7% to $919,000 in May, as compared to $925,300 in April, according to Trade Me Property’s latest price index.

Head of Trade Me Property Nigel Jeffries said the Auckland market is experiencing a more significant slowdown than the rest of the country.

While the average asking price hit the $900,000 mark last November, price growth has been relatively stagnant compared to the powerful market of 2015 and 2016, he said.

“The way things were going we’d expected to see prices closer to the $1m mark by now, but the LVRs and other restrictions appear to have slowed the Auckland market right down.”

However, there is one sector within the Auckland market that is bucking the cooler trend.

Jefferies said that in May the expected selling price for Auckland units reached a new record high of $623,550, which was a solid 6.6% year-on-year increase.

“The humble unit in Auckland has doubled in price in less than seven years. Back in September 2010, a unit had an average asking price of $310,200.”

Auckland apartments and townhouses also continued to see decent year-on-year price growth.

Meanwhile, the national average asking price dropped by 0.6% to $640,650 in May, as compared to $644,600 in April.

Jeffries said national asking prices are still up almost 10% on a year ago, but they are seeing signs that a slowdown is starting.

“While we’re seeing some easing in property prices - it’s fair to say the New Zealand property market is enjoying strong growth.”

Despite the national result, for the first time since Trade Me began recording average asking prices in 2008, all 15 regions of the country saw year-on-year price increases.

This is particularly significant in regions like the West Coast where prices have declined in 10 of the past 18 months and Canterbury which has had four consecutive months of declining asking prices.

Jeffries said that seeing positive growth for every region compared to May 2016 was not something they would expect to see very often.

Average asking prices in Auckland’s ‘halo regions’ continue to grow at well over 10%, he added.

Waikato’s average asking price rose by 19.9% year-on-year to hit another record high of $525,550 in May.

Both Northland and the Bay of Plenty saw strong year-on-year price growth too, with average asking prices up 20% and 10.5% respectively.