Manukau's property market wrap
The recent sales data from REINZ (NZ's most accurate and up-to-date information provider) shows prices remain stable and flat however the good news — Manukau was up 1.4% this month with a new median sale price of $797,000.
The days on market for both Manukau and across Auckland were 45 days and a total of 379 sales were settled across Manukau last month.
Open home numbers and enquiry continues to be pretty good though on the whole, especially on properties under $1M (comparative to a few months ago).
Median house prices
The median house prices in Manukau were up by 1.4% this month. In Auckland, this number increased by 1.2% compared to this time last year from $850,000 to $860,000 — the highest price the region has seen for 2019 so far. Across NZ, the median house prices increased by 3.2% in May to $578,000, up from $560,000 in May 2018.
Properties sold
In Auckland, the number of properties sold in May fell by -21.8% from this time last year, however, there was a 13.0% lift in the number of properties sold when we compare May to April.
Days on market
Auckland saw the median number of days to sell a property increase by 5 days from 40 to 45 when compared to the same time last year.
Listings
This morning just 2,187 properties were available on realestate.co.nz in Manukau, so it’s still dropping a few percent each week. I thought it may actually hold or even lift with the last of the post-holiday campaigns hitting the market this past and next week, but that doesn’t appear to the case. As winter nears closer, listings continue to fall.
General commentary
Recent Statistics NZ data shows that population growth remains strong, low interest rates remain and confirmation that there will be no capital gains tax or even an extension of the five year Brightline test indicates positive things for the property market.
Continued stability moving forward is definitely expected, and is what we are already seeing with stock turning over just a little bit better as both vendors and buyers have now adjusted to the new environment.
LVR Policies
The RBNZ didn’t announce any changes to the current LVR policies in their FS report recently. Maybe these will come in November and change in January, as has happened for the past couple of years. But remember they will (likely) only relax them if housing lending continues to decline, and the easing of the property market extends throughout the rest of NZ (currently just Auckland). So, essentially, only if things get worse.
Therefore one could say that if they don’t make adjustments come November, it’s because the market has improved, or at least, isn’t getting any worse. Either way, both are good outcomes. If we were to see cuts, it will likely be in both the 30% minimum deposit for investors and 20% minimum deposit for owner-occupiers — both by 5%.