Auckland house prices continue their relentless rise

In the space of just five years, the Auckland property market has risen by 52%.

Back in November 2008 the Stratified median price in Auckland as measured by the Real Estate Institute was $435,700.

The November sales data for 2013 shows that median price is now $664,100. Five years, a total increase of $228,400, that's more than the average annual earnings in Auckland over that period!

As ever peaks and troughs in property markets are only ever able to be judged in hindsight, but buying a property in November 2008 now seems like a smart move, although at the time there would be many calling it a risky move given the trend of declining prices at the time.

Future Trends
The question often asked in relation to the prediction of property prices is how best to judge future prices based on past trends. This is, as often stated, not an exact science. However with over 30 years of data from the Real Estate Institute it is certainly worth exploring.

For comparisons to be made from one time period to the next requires a degree of normalising; which when it comes to prices, whether that be for property or households goods means adjusting for the impact of inflation. The general rise in prices as a function of inflation is far different from specific price rises caused by pressure of supply or demand, as is often the case with property.

Using the Reserve Bank Inflation Calculator and applying it to the monthly data of Auckland Stratified Property Prices produces this chart below which shows a somewhat different picture as to price movement for the past 6 years.

The rise of 52% in today's dollars equates to a 37.8% increase when adjusted for inflation - still a significant rise over 5 years, however as can be seen almost all of that rise occurred in the past 2 years, as before that property prices adjusted for inflation hardly rose at all.

This steep rise of the past 2 years is pretty significant. From the starting point of October 2011 - 26 months ago the CPI adjusted Auckland median house price has risen by over 29%!

I thought it would be interesting to compare this rate of increase with the last time we experienced a very active period of house price growth back in 2002. That point was the start of what became a relentless rise which over a 5 year period saw property prices rise close to 70% in real terms, only ending with the start of the Global Financial Crisis.

Taking just the comparable 26 month periods which commenced these periods of steep growth the period of December 2001 to Jan 2004 was a 27.2% rise. So by this measure we are current witnessing a faster rate of property price appreciation than the period cited by many as a period of rampant property inflation that we would never see the likes of again!

The question then has to be asked as to the likelihood of the property price appreciation continuing for another 3 years from now based on the parallel of the past 26 months of the 2001 run in property prices?

As ever that is a very hard call to make. The factors driving the rise in 2003/4 were very strong global economic activity backed by a strategy of targeted low interest rates as the US Federal Reserve sought to ensure the US economy staved off the recession and impacts of 9/11. Technology was driving prices lower and the powerhouse growth of China and the rest of  BRIC countries.

That was 2003/4, as to 2012/13 the world is emerging, still slowly from the GFC, the US economy and the British economy are picking up steam and the forecast for the NZ economy is for very strong growth, some say growth not seen since the 1970's. Add to this the migration expectations as they are likely to be felt more strongly in Auckland and then overlay the ever present issues about new construction of residential property and you have the seeds of strong factors for continuing property demand. Finally the cost of finance is targeted to rise, certainly a dampener on property prices, but when and by how much is debatable. In relative terms a 1% or 2% increase in mortgage rates will be significant when the current rate of 6%, but finance for property at 7.5% or 8% is in the long term still considered manageable.

In the short term the trend of property prices will likely be a slowing of growth. That is to say that when property prices take off as they have over the past 2 years the rate of growth has to slow as rises of 15% or put to 20% are unsustainable -  a 10% or below rate of annual growth is more likely - still seeing prices rise.

The chart below tracks the first 36 months of the property rises from December 2001 as measured as year on year growth and then tracks the 26 months of the 2011 to date run. An similarity of price growth trend - but very likely to tail off in the next 12 months. 

Former Realestate.co.nz CEO Alistair Helm is founder of Properazzi.