So how is the market?

There has been a notable ‘bounce in the step’ of the Manukau market with good properties commanding strong interest. Stories of multiple offers, competitive bidding & quick sales frequenting the real estate airwaves.

Sales volumes remain suppressed and we put this down to the subdued stock levels of properties. Whilst in September both the New Zealand & Auckland market saw volume increases from last year, the Manukau volumes remain at some of the lowest at 129 in September.

Manukau’s statistics

The Manukau median price has remained stable at $710,000 in September and average sale time sits at 30 days. Manukau is up by 1.5% last month compared to the month previous and has increased 7.5% this time 5 years ago.

Market highlights

Median house prices across New Zealand increased by 6.6% in September to a record high of $597,000, up from $560,000 in September 2018.

September was a strong month price wise, with record median prices recorded in four regions – Manawatu/Wanganui, Southland, Taranaki and Hawke’s Bay. New Zealand as a whole saw a record median price of $597,000. Overall, median prices rose in 13 out of 16 regions."

Auckland saw the first annual increase in median prices for the region in 11 months.

In summary

The pendulum of market forces is swinging favourably for the real estate market with low interest rates, abolished capital gains tax, housing shortage, and increased buyer confidence. There is also growing acceptance of recent changes to legislation with the Overseas Investment Act, Brightline Test change, Anti-money laundering & Residential Tenancies Act.

There are always markets within markets but all in all, a solid start to Spring, key indicators pointing towards a stable market with momentum building despite the lack of availability of quality listings restricting sales volumes. The year on year median sale price difference has risen to realistic levels.

So how is the market?

If you were to ask me how the market is now, I would say not bad. I might even say pretty good. It continues to be a good time to buy, prices are the lowest they'll probably go, and (thanks to the RBNZ lowering the OCR to 1%) interest rates remain low and look set to stay there for quite some time.

With that said, it’s not a bad time to sell either for most properties — assuming you’ve adjusted your pricing expectations to the new norm in Manukau and Auckland overall. Will the low interest rates see an upturn in the market? It is unlikely in the immediate term, however it has already increased confidence and activity in the market. With further relaxing of the LVR rules expected (and perhaps some relaxing of the banks’ lending criteria), predictions point to an upturn maybe late 2020, but more likely 2021–22.

Market highlights

The monthly property report from REINZ shows for the first time in eight months, the number of residential properties sold across NZ in July increased by 3.7% from the same time last year to 6,118. This number is also the highest for the month of July in 3 years.

This suggests we’re starting to see some early signs of growth. We can attribute this to more certainty post the removal of the Capital Gains Tax bill, renewed confidence as parts of the market adopt the new norm in terms of pricing, and the warmer weather we’re looking forward to (which is when we tend to see more activity in the market).

Manukau’s statistics

We are seeing many positive signs for the road ahead. Manukau’s median sale price for July 2019 was $820,000 and when we compare this to July 2018 this figure was $828,000. Auckland's average asking price lifted by 1.5% compared to June 2019 to $928,152 for the second month in a row — that’s still some way off the region’s 2019 peak average asking price of $960,715 in February. I'll be watching with interest to see what happens during the rest of this quarter.

In summary

Across Auckland, prices haven’t really fallen that much; volume yes, but prices have been pretty static for quite some time. We can expect a nice stable market for the foreseeable future.