The property market in Auckland remains balanced and stable with homes turning over at a relatively slower rate in recent months as listings remain relatively high.

We are finding homes are taking a while longer to sell given the current stock levels, however, there is still a good percentage of homes selling each month and values are reasonably consistent. Sellers are finding that in a balanced market, prices need to be competitive from the get-go and aligned with current market conditions and buyer activity if they are to sell. The silver lining to that, of course, is that prices are relative; so, if you're buying and selling in Auckland in the same market, it balances out.

It's also worth noting that in Auckland over the past 20 years, property prices have nearly doubled every 10 years, as the median 10 year rise is 96% which you can see in the chart below (this data is using REINZ House Price Index). When you compare this to all of NZ, Auckland has sustained a relatively consistent higher 10 year growth in prices that are well ahead of the NZ total at 88%.

Regardless of the rates of values and turn over, the balance between demand and supply always needs to be considered in assessing market activity and property values.

Source

Although the market in Auckland is traditionally quieter during this time, sales have still been ticking along.

The latest sales statistics from QV show that the Auckland values rose up to 4.2% at the end of this year, in the last 3 months alone. Nationwide property values increased 4.9% annually, and 1.5% over the past three months. This puts nationwide values 17.9% higher than the previous market peak reached in late 2007.Auckland values rose at almost twice the rate of the rest of New Zealand, up 9.8% (by $68,309) in the last year, and are being picked to shoot up even further this year.

Jonno Ingerson, director of CoreLogic, said the outlook for this year was for values to continue up. Jonno predicts that the sales turnover will remain healthy and steady, but the constraint of new listings will be the factor in rising values.   “Given strong migration, continuing low interest rates, a shortage of housing and good consumer confidence, values are likely to keep increasing in Auckland throughout this year...”

Given that during the last three months of 2014, Auckland values rose faster than they did during the 2003 to 2007 boom, the Reserve Bank says it is prepared to introduce further measures to slow down the market if necessary.

This would most likely include lending restraints as the interest rates are unlikely to rise until later on in the year.  

Manukau City values rose 9.5% on year and 3.3% since October '14 Waitakere City homes values rose 10.7% on year and 4.4% since October '14 North Shore City values rose 8.9% year on year and 3.3% since October '14 Papakura District values were up 10.6% and 5.6% since October '14

www.qv.co.nz