Source: Radio New Zealand
Te Awamutu. Waipā District Council
New data shows buyers are cautious around the country, but sellers in a number of suburbs face a particular struggle to sell.
Cotality data shows that sellers in Kihikihi, Waipa, are waiting a median 50.5 days to sell their properties, up from a one-year average of 45.
Second-slowest was Te Kauwhata, Waikato, where properties took a median 46.5 days to change hands, but that was down from an average 73 over the past year.
Third was Omokoroa, Western Bay of Plenty, at 45 days down from an average 78 over the past year.
Te Atatu South and Karaka were the only Auckland suburbs featured in the top ten, taking 39 and 38 days, respectively. Karaka had taken an average 75 days over the past year.
It comes as Real Estate Institute (REINZ) data shows a seasonally adjusted dip in activity in March and a median days to sell across the country of 41, the same as a year earlier.
At a regional rather than suburb level, Canterbury had its highest median days to sell since 2011 according to REINZ data, at 38. Waikato was the highest since 2013 at 47.
But Nelson and Southland had their lowest since 2011.
Northland had the highest regional wait time to sell, at 53, followed by Gisborne at 51.
REINZ chief executive Lizzy Ryley said buyers were active but more measured as they considered the impact of pressure on fuel prices due to war in the Middle East.
“I think towards the end of the month when people started to think about the length of this conflict and the fuel prices, we just started to see a bit of caution.
“Our members across the country started to talk about a bit of caution, but certainly the numbers look like the market’s holding its nerve.”
The median national sales price eased by 0.3 percent year-on-year to $788,000.
Excluding Auckland, it lifted 1.4 percent to $710,000.
The house price index, a measure that smoothes fluctuations caused by the type of properties selling, was down slightly over the month and 14.9 percent below the peak.
Ryley said what happened to the market from here would depend a lot on external factors.
“When you look back at the previous wars, like the Gulf War … obviously there’s a whole lot of other factors that go into anything when you’re looking at a market, but it seemed that from what we could see looking back, that the housing market sort of just continued its stable trajectory.
“It didn’t seem to affect the housing market. Now, this seems to be a bit more of a potential energy crisis, which has its flow on impacts, and so we don’t necessarily know if that will in fact impact the property market.
“I think it’s a watching brief and our members across the country, they’re obviously like everybody in New Zealand, watching to see what happens with these talks, whether it’s starting to look like it might ease, but it’s all about the length of time this goes on.”
She said new listing numbers were stable and increased in seven of the 15 regions that REINZ tracks.
She said the market had been relatively stable ever since the trough after the Covid peak.
“The last two, three years … some areas of the country doing better than others. Nothing much increasing dramatically.
“It’s pretty good market for the first time home house buyer … More challenging for owner occupiers, some of whom still focus on, maybe they bought at the peak and then had that 15 percent drop. But since then, it’s pretty much stabilised.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand