Auckland and Wellington now buyer’s markets

It’s now a buyer’s market in New Zealand’s main cities with new data showing the tables have turned for the housing market.

The data from realestate.co.nz shows in March, Wellington tipped into a buyers’ market, and during April Auckland followed the trendsetting capital.

Average asking prices in the main centres have also largely been on a downward trajectory since February 2022.

Spokesperson for realestate.co.nz Vanessa Williams told AM on Monday while there is still plenty of demand, the market is less frantic.

“It’s been a real mixed bag out there. Typically we see that the New Zealand property market is led by our big centres and this month we have seen both Auckland and Wellington tip into a buyer’s market.

“But look when I say that regions across New Zealand like the Coromandel and Central Otago Lakes District – they have seen fantastic increases in prices so we’ve got a real mixed bag out there at the moment.

“So Wellington tipped over the $1 million mark this year but we’ve seen it this month just under that at about $971,000 and Auckland hit just under $1.3 million earlier in the year but we are starting to see that pull back and that’s actually driving the national average asking price. So looking right across New Zealand, earlier this year we saw it hit $1 million but that is starting to pull back as well just with the cooling of our major markets.”

Williams said the new measures introduced to cool the market are working, including the introduction of stricter lending criteria and increasing interest rates.

But she said Kiwis are still keen to own property so demand hasn’t dropped off just yet.

“New Zealanders just absolutely love property; it is through our DNA and we haven’t seen that demand pull back yet.”

The latest user data showed that more than 1.2 million users browsed for properties on realestate.co.nz during April – a dip from March’s record 1.37 million, largely due to April’s long weekends when some Kiwis take a break from property-seeking.

Stock increases offer breathing room to buyers

Last month buyers had plenty of choices, with stock up by 70.8 percent nationally compared to April 2021. There were 27,050 homes available for sale with national stock hitting levels not seen since April 2019.