The FINANCIAL — Nationwide house prices in New Zealand edged down again in November from the previous month, while seasonally adjusted figures showing falls in sales volume nationally and in Auckland also suggest measures introduced to take some of the heat out of New Zealand’s property market may be starting to work, according to Nasdaq.
The national median price dipped 0.1% in November compared with the previous month, following a 5.1% fall in October, according to the latest data from the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand released on December 10. Compared with the previous year, the NZ$459,500 median was 0.8% higher.
Home sales totaled 8,048 nationally in November, up 2.7% on October and up 8.5% from a year earlier. On a seasonally adjusted basis, though, sales fell 2.6% from the previous month.
Looking at Auckland, the median price was up 2.2% for the month, and up 14.2% for the year to NZ$765,000. Sales volume edged down 1.3% from October, though a seasonally adjusted drop of 11.5% pointed more clearly to a cooling of the market.
New rules affecting the property market are still being absorbed, said Colleen Milne, REINZ chief executive. Non- resident investors now need to get both a New Zealand tax number and a New Zealand bank account before they can buy a property.
“Understandably this has slowed down some purchase decisions while the implications of the new rules are absorbed, with a fall-off in auction clearances the most prominent outworking of this. The situation should revert as the market adjusts to the new operating environment and restrictions,” she said.
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