PHOTO: realestate.co.nz
Covid-19 did little to dampen the New Zealand property market last year. New annual data from realestate.co.nz shows that as prices soared, so too did demand with 23.0% more users searching for property nationally when compared to 2019.
Also increasing by 227.8%, the number of people searching for property in 2020 more than tripled when compared to 2016.
Vanessa Taylor, spokesperson for realestate.co.nz, says that despite all the challenges that came with 2020, our love affair with property didn’t diminish:
“Up 10.7% to $775,976, properties in New Zealand, on average, cost $75,056 more in 2020 than they did in 2019. Coupled with the record demand, this tells us that people didn’t shy away from buying and selling last year.”
Vanessa says that all property listed on realestate.co.nz in 2020 totalled an asking price sum of $94 billion*, up 5.4% on $90 billion in 2019.
Demand from users searching for property at realestate.co.nz rose in every region in 2020, with the most significant increases seen in the South Island. Searches were up 46.1% in Nelson & Bays, 38.9% in West Coast and 37.6% in Marlborough.
However, the increase in demand wasn’t matched by the number of properties that came onto the market, says Vanessa.
Nationally, 109,128 properties were listed for sale in 2020 – a 2.6% decrease on the 112,007 properties that hit the market in 2019.
Marlborough property seekers were most squeezed for choice last year, with 16.2% fewer homes coming on to the market in the region compared to 2019. In Northland, new listings were down 15.9% on 2019 and in Nelson & Bays they dropped 14.0%.
“What we’ve seen quite clearly throughout 2020 is demand for property outweighing supply, which could have contributed to price increases,” says Vanessa.
Only Auckland bucked the trend, with a 10.5% increase in listings in 2020, while Central Otago/Lakes recorded a marginal increase of 0.3%.
“In Auckland we’ve started to see a change, with the large number of new homes being built exceeding demand caused by population growth. But supply is still tight because of the shortfall in previous years.”
Average asking prices were up year-on-year in every New Zealand region in 2020, as well as nationally.
The largest price increase during 2020 was in Gisborne, where average asking prices were up 21.8% on 2019 to $526,948. This was followed by Wairarapa and Manawatu/Whanganui, both up 16.8% to $591,600 and $494,468 respectively. Southland prices increased 14.4% to $406,872 and Otago was up 13.7% to $526,609.
*Where a display price is not supplied the search price has been used.
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