TOUGH TIMES: 40% of house listings have lowered their asking prices

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PHOTO: Home sellers are having to drop their asking prices to sell. FILE

According to STUFF almost 40% of properties listed with a price during 2022 later had that price lowered, new data shows.

Realestate.co.nz has released its latest data, which shows homeowners are holding back from listing their properties for sale. In December, the number of new property listings on the market dropped by almost 26% nationally compared to December 2021.

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Only Taranaki and Coromandel had more listings last month than the same time a year earlier.

But there were still more houses for buyers to choose from.

Four regions of New Zealand had more than twice as many listings on the market as a year earlier – Coromandel, Nelson and bays, Taranaki and the central North Island.

Nationally, stock levels were up 55.3% year-on-year.

The “buyers’ market” that created prompted some sellers to lower their prices.

In 2022, 39% of listings nationally had their price lowered.

In December, 10% of new listings dropped the price. That includes properties that had been listed as an auction and shifted to by negotiation and fixed price.

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Spokesperson Vanessa Williams said the lack of new listings could be due to people wanting to wait to see the outcome of this year’s election, nervousness around prices or the fact that finance was more expensive.

“It will be interesting to see what the new year brings. People tend to hold off buying and selling around elections, so we will have to wait and see if this rings true for 2023.”

Those who did list were still asking for relatively strong prices – nationally the average asking price increased to $920,422 in December, after dipping below $900,000 in November. Southland had a record asking price of $547,269.

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The Real Estate Institute said that, in November, the median sales price was down 12.4% across the country year-on-year, to $925,000.

“There have been a lot of external factors at play this year,” Williams said.

“Not only have we seen significant economic activity within New Zealand and globally, but we have also been in recovery from the skyrocketing prices we saw during the peak of pandemic restrictions.”

The market was in buyers’ favour on a national basis and in Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, Otago, Auckland, Wellington, Waikato and Nelson.

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“Fewer buyers in the market combined with stock increases around the motu create a perfect storm where supply exceeds demand, and buyers’ markets emerge,” Williams said.

She said that was not necessarily bad for sellers.

“A buyers’ market gives buyers and sellers more time to negotiate and do their due diligence. It doesn’t automatically mean low prices.”