AUCKLAND (CU)_The national average asking price for a house in New Zealand in October was a little shy of $1 million, as average prices in ten regions hit a 14-year record-high. According to listings on realestate.co.nz, the island nation’s average asking price reached a whopping $993,135 last month, while the property site had 1.35 million visitors, its second-largest month of the year.
The biggest annual increase in asking price was reported from Central Otago Lakes district, at $1,423,038, this was a 41.9 per cent increase from October 2020. Although none of the regions saw a decline in asking prices year-on-year, asking prices in Southland, Canterbury, Otago, Taranaki and West Coast dropped more than 1 per cent from the previous month.
In the city of Auckland, record asking prices went up by 21.3 per cent to $1,230,163, followed by Wellington, where this figure increased by 24 per cent to $961,799. A record asking price of $794,975 was reported from Central North Island, with a 37.2 per cent increase in October, and a 34 per cent increase in Wairarapa to $810,790. In Hawke’s Bay, Waikato and Manawatu the average asking prices reached $843,306, $865,592 and $659,622 respectively, with increases below 30 per cent.
It appears that with a 16.1 per cent annual decline in listings in October, the residential housing market of New Zealand has become vendor’s paradise.
According to Vanessa Williams, a spokeswoman for Realestate.co.nz, while supply has not met demand for housing in many years, there has been a small increase in lower North Island in October, compared with the previous month. “This could mean one of two things that either demand is cooling in these regions, or more properties are being listed. Our site data suggests the latter,” she said.
