NZ house sales rebound from October low point: REINZ

NZ house sales rebound from October low point: REINZ

by Paul McBeth

Dec. 14 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand’s residential house sales bounced back last month from October’s trough, though they’re still subdued as people continue to repay debt rather than ramp up their spending.

Sales rose to 5,138 in November from just 3,903 a month earlier, but are still 15% down on the same month a year ago, according to Real Estate Institute data.

The average sales price rose 2.9% to $360,000 from October, and was 1.4% above November 2009. REINZ is expecting the flood of listings last month to attract more buyers, and is betting there won’t be the usual Christmas lull in the property market.

“With pent-up levels of people now in the market who need to buy or sell homes, we can expected the increased activity to continue through December and the summer without the usual slowdown over Christmas,” spokesman Bryan Thomson said in a statement.

“With sellers coming to terms with current market prices and buyers reassured about the long term stability of interest rates, confirmed last week by the Reserve Bank Governor, we can look forward to more positive levels of real estate market activity than we have seen over the past six or eight months.”

The property market has been in a slump for most of this year as households have endeavoured to use historically low interest rates to repay outstanding debt rather than take on a mortgage.

That’s kept a brake on the economic recovery, and central bank Governor Alan Bollard last week said he expects house prices to fall a little further over the coming year.

Government valuer QV last week reported property values dropped for an eighth straight month in November.

The REINZ monthly housing price index, which was developed with the Reserve Bank to help flatten out volatility in sales prices, rose 1.9% to 3221.5 last month, and fell 0.5% over a rolling three month period.

It’s down 1.9% annually, and house prices are 4.7% below their 2007 peak.

The median time to sell a house fell to 40 days from 41 days in October.

The Auckland median price rose to $477,000 from $460,000 in October, and the number of sales increased to 1,789 from 1,360 month-on-month.

The Wellington median sale price gained to $400,000 from $390,336, with sales up to 670 from 496 in October.

The median sale price in Christchurch fell to $325,000 from $338,000, with sales increasing to 439 from 343 a month earlier.

The Canterbury region was hit by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake at the start of September, causing widespread property damage.

The Dunedin median price fell to $236,000 from $259,500 October, and sales rose to 204 from 150.

(BusinessDesk) 10:48:21

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