Sellers hesitant to list new properties during Rugby World Cup
Fewer new properties came onto the market in New Zealand in October due to the Rugby World Cup, according to estate agents.
The nation was so caught up in the tournament, which New Zealand went on to win, that sellers were hesitant to list new properties, the latest NZ Property Report says.
‘The slightly lower level of listings in October are now judged to have been influenced by the Rugby World Cup with sellers possibly hesitant to list at that time preferring to wait until the event was over before marketing their properties,’ says the report.
But 2011 has seen a much lower level of new listings than 2010, so far this year 116,016 new listings have been brought to market 11% lower than last year, the report also says.
There has been a steady long term increase in property prices over the last three years but the truncated mean asking price of for all new listings in November eased slightly from the peak in October of $434,161 to $425,956.
‘On a seasonally adjusted basis the asking price fell 2% indicating that whilst expectations are rising the rate of increase is not as high as seasonal factors would expect,’ the report says.
The level of new listings coming onto the market in November rose on a seasonally adjusted basis by 17%. A total of 13,369 new listings came onto the market representing a 3% year on year rise. On a 12 month moving total basis the number of new listings in the past year totals 124,412 as compared 140,214 for the same period a year ago, a fall of 11%.
Across the 19 regions the view is generally of increasing prices with 12 regions reporting increases as measured against the recent three month average. Hawkes Bay, Nelson and the West Coast saw asking prices rise over 5%, the latter of these reporting a new record high up 25% over the prior year to $315,993.
Seven regions saw asking prices fall with Northland, Gisborne, Manawatu /Wanganui and Southland seeing a fall of more than 5%. The largest of these falls was in Gisborne which saw asking price fall by 29% compared with November last year.
‘The market is now firmly in the peak summer season and with the more balanced market in terms of inventory of unsold properties on the market the options seem more open for both active buyers and sellers,’ the report says.
Lifestyle property listings shot up in November with 1,133 listings in the month, this represented a 15% seasonally adjusted increase but was down 5% on the same month last year. The truncated mean asking price at $574,507 was up 3% from last year but down 3% down on the recent three month average.
Across the country strength in new listings was seen in Northland which was up 67% year on year and the Waikato which was up 13% year on year. The Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and Wellington all saw year on year falls of over 25%.
New listings for apartments picked up in November up 20% from October but 10% down on last year. The truncated mean asking price of $370,532 was up 2% from prior month and in line with last year.
The Auckland market which dominates the apartment market saw a stronger performance with new listings 25% up on the previous month and just 1.4% down on last year. The asking price was $352,407 which was up nearly 15% on last year and 2% up from October.