Whopping apartment price increases but rate slowing

Asking prices for Auckland apartments are increasing at a staggering $5000 a month.

The average asking price for an apartment has hit a whopping $600,000 for the first time, Trade Me Property figures show.  

Over the past five years the average asking price of an Auckland apartment has more than doubled from $283,000 to almost $602,000.

But price increases have started slipping back in line with Auckland’s urban houses and growth in the average asking price for an apartment has dropped to 39.6% compared to last year’s eye-watering 49% increase, reported in August.

As with apartments, average asking prices for houses have hit a whopping $803,000 but the growth in prices is spiralling down.

Trade Me Property head Nigel Jeffries says while average asking prices rose 17% last month – a huge increase – it is a fair way behind the 20% rise in the year to June.  Year-on-year growth slipped from 30% in August to 25% for the year to November.

Mr Jeffries says he expects the slowdown to continue for some months.

It took just 10 months for the average asking price for an urban house to jump $100,000 to more than $800,000. “To put that in context it took 17 months to move from $600,000 to $700,000 and more than two years to shift up from $500,000 to the $600,000 mark,” Mr Jeffries says.  

Over the past five years the average asking price for an Auckland property has risen by 61.66% – up $306,500 since November 2010.

Prices outside the super city also dropping
Excluding Auckland, the average asking price nationwide rose 1.2% in November, down on the 3.8% rise last month.

Over the past five years the average asking price for a property outside Auckland has increased by 22.6% from $350,000 to $429,100. This rate of growth is the highest level seen over the past seven years and a long way from just two years ago. In November 2013 the five-year growth rate was a barely noticeable 2.1%.

“Sometimes it’s important to remove the impossible Auckland yardstick and look objectively at what’s been going on around the country,” Mr Jeffries says. “The rate of growth we’re seeing for typical properties around the country is excellent.”

By house size
The average asking price for all house sizes grew considerably during November.

Large houses (5+ bedrooms) edged closer to $1million, with a 13.8% increase taking the average asking price to $987,700, an increase of $10,000 per month over the past year.

In Auckland, large houses have been increasing even faster – up $18,000 every month in the past year – with 5+ bedroom houses now hitting an average asking price of $1.24 million. This is an enormous increase of $470,000 in the past five years, or 61%.

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