Auckland house prices little changed in December as sales volumes, listings drop

 Auckland home sales continued to fall in December, with fewer houses sold and fewer listed, while prices were little changed, sending mixed messages for the housing market in 2016, according to the city's largest realtor.

Monthly sales volumes fell 19.3 percent to 796 in December, the lowest number of sales in a December for four years and a 22-month low, Barfoot & Thompson said in a statement. This follows a 7.7 percent decline in November, and a 21 percent fall in October. Sales have dropped 30 percent over the past three months, the realtor said.

The government and the Reserve Bank have introduced new measures to try and cool Auckland's bubbling property market, where migrants and investor are adding to competition for a shortage of housing. The central bank introduced Auckland-specific lending restrictions in November, while the government's more stringent enforcement of taxing speculators' capital gains began in October.

The average sale price dipped 0.8 percent to $869,492 in December, lagging behind November's 4.2 percent growth, while the median price rose 0.6 percent to an all-time high of $800,000. Managing director Peter Thompson said the market was "rock steady" from a price perspective, with about 95 percent of properties selling for over $500,000.

Some 278 properties sold for over $1 million in December, and another 202 sold for over $750,000. Just 44 properties, or 5.5 percent of all sales, sold for under $500,000.

New listings fell 55 percent to 757 in December, which Thompson said was normal for that time of year, and the number is the highest in a December for four years. New listings have dropped 58.3 percent over the past three months.

However, total listings at the end of the month fell 25.2 percent to a more-than-20 year low of 2431 houses on the market at the end of December, and the realtor said this was the number most likely to impact on January sales.

"With a growing population and the number of new builds failing to keep pace with demand, competition for properties is likely to remain strong in the first quarter of 2016," Thompson said. "With so few properties on the market, now is an excellent time to list."

The average sales price for the full year increased to $817,096, up 14 percent from 2014 and a 25.8 percent rise on 2013. The median sales price for the year was $755,333, 17.4 percent higher than 2014 and 30.5 percent more than 2013.

(BusinessDesk)