Auckland housing market showing 'tepid signs of stabilising' in April

Thursday 3rd May 2018

The Auckland residential property market may be stabilising after tighter regulations slowed housing market growth in the country's largest city.

The average sale price for April advanced 1.4 percent to $930,223 from April last year, having shown little movement over the past 12 months, Auckland realtor Barfoot & Thompson said in a statement. The median price slipped 2.4 percent to $830,000 as fewer properties were sold in the $1 million to $2 million category. Sales volumes rose 10 percent to 731.

There were 1,358 new listings during the month, with 4,678 properties available for sale at the end of the month, the second-highest level for the past six years.

Auckland's heated housing market had shown some signs of cooling after Reserve Bank restrictions on more highly-leveraged mortgage lending and government policies to restrict the sale of homes and property to residential investors. ASB Bank said house sales were showing "tepid signs of stabilising" and the market continued to rebalance as total inventory crept higher.

"The pressure continues to ease in the Auckland housing market," ASB economist Kim Mundy said in a note. "Total listings continue to lift higher, while new listings and sales remain subdued.

"The data suggest that the slowing in Auckland’s housing market might be starting to abate with annual sales and new listings higher than in April 2017. It remains too early to tell whether this trend will continue but, for now, we continue to expect the Auckland housing market to remain relatively subdued given uncertainty around legislative changes. Further out, the ongoing supply shortage and easing loan-to-value restrictions will provide some support to prices."

Most of the trading activity in the month occurred in the $500,000 to $1 million price category, with sales in this segment accounting for 57 percent of all sales, Barfoot said. Sales of homes under $500,000 accounted for 9.8 percent of all sales.

(BusinessDesk)

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