According to housing market portal Realestate.co.nz, the 2024 property market ended on a very weak note.
They say the activity slowdown in December was more than just the seasonal pullback. In their terms it was ‘exceptionally lukewarm’ or ‘record-breakingly quiet’. Others might say it was downright cold.
New listing activity was low, and the national average asking price was almost its lowest since February 2021 at just $820,250, down -$34,500 for the year. (Realestate.co.nz prefer to use ‘seasonally adjusted’ levels – $842,476 – but it is unclear why house prices need seasonal adjustment. Sales volumes and listings, yes. But prices? We prefer to report the actual levels, as the selling agencies do, and making them more relatable to metrics from others.)
Despite the low new listing level, there were still 29,500 properties for sale at the end of the year, after peaking at almost 34,000 in November. Year-on-year that is +18% “more choice” than a year ago, which itself was near a recent high.
As usual, there were significant variations between markets. Eleven of 19 regions saw average asking prices decline year-on-year. But the outsized rises and outsized falls mostly occurred in the smaller regional markets.
In Auckland, the average listing price fell to $961,529, down -5% from a year ago, down -9.2% from November.
In Wellington, the average listing price rose to $844,667, up +2.2% from a year ago, and up +3.3% from November.
In Canterbury, the average listing price fell to $678,722, down -5.1% from a year ago, down -7.1% from November.
As was noted last month, the sheer weight of housing stock for sale is pushing down prices, with vendors having to bite the bullet on price if they are wanting to achieve a sale. And clearly more sellers are.
Buyers continue to be spoiled for choice.
The average time to achieve a sale (by the selling agent) is still 23 weeks nationally, the same as it was a year ago. In Auckland it is 27 weeks (24 weeks a year ago), in Wellington 12 weeks (14), and in Canterbury 16 weeks (14).
The following two tables were supplied by realestate.co.nz and the first one uses their ‘seasonal adjustment’ calculations.
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NZ total Auckland Bay of Plenty Canterbury Central North Island Central Otago Lakes Coromandel Gisborne Hawkes Bay Manawatu Wanganui Marlborough Nelson Northland Otago Southland Taranaki Waikato Wairarapa Wellington West Coast
